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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28103733">Who We Are Today</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliomina/pseuds/ameliomina'>ameliomina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Above the Deep (Luke Lived AU) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Emotional Hurt, Friends to Lovers, Luke lived AU, M/M, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, himbo/himbo representation!!!, javier is a himbo, lujavi - Freeform, religious trauma, so is Luke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:47:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28103733</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliomina/pseuds/ameliomina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I want to help rebuild Richmond.” Javier said, Jesus’s advice came back to him. “I don’t want Kate’s sacrifice to go to waste…for everyone we lost to make this place better to be in vain.” Javier met Luke’s eyes once again. “I want to step up. Be a leader. Be there for people.”</p><p>“I admire that.” A pale ribbon of smoke rose from the glowing end of Luke’s joint. “But it’ll take time. Your arrival started this whole mess...people will need to forgive you, then learn to trust you. You gotta earn it.”</p><p>“Then I will.” Javier resolved.</p><p>“I hope you do,” Luke extinguished his finished joint on the armrest of his wheelchair, then wiped the ash off. “I think you might be what Richmond needs, Javi. I’d like to see what you’ve got. The make of your character,” Luke looked over and gave Javier a gentle smile, friendly but inquisitive. “You won’t let me down, will you?”</p><hr/><p>( A continuation of the "Luke Lives" AU, following post S3. Luke and Javier work to rebuild Richmond and themselves, blossoming a friendship along the way. Which, over time, becomes more. Slowburn romance, there will be deep character analysis as well. This will also deal with the Virginia War, involving Delta and Chesapeake, stay tuned. )</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>David García &amp; Javier García, Gabriel García &amp; Javier García, Javier García/Luke (Walking Dead: All That Remains)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Above the Deep (Luke Lived AU) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Keep Your Way</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so i said that i'd finish this at christmas but guess what? i was in the mood. so yes this was posted the day after i finished my other fic. enjoy :)</p><p>so basically this is a continuation of my "Keep Our Heads Above The Deep" fic, which was an AU where clementine had to chose between luke and kenny and picked luke, and basically everything that happened after. luke lived through s3, but was injured and could not go get AJ with clementine. so for now he is waiting on her to come back with their boy and is rebuilding richmond with javier. this is a planned series, it will be a slowburn between them and discuss what happens at richmond during the war and beyond.</p><p>in the sequel i plan to write about richmond rebuilding, the war, the garcía family, religious trauma, sexual repression, overcoming trauma, and exploring luke and javier's characters. i highly recommend reading my original fic to read this, but you don't have to.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Javier woke up with his heart in a vice grip. His head ached, as did the rest of his body, both from the physical exertion last week’s events had put him through, but also from the grief. It filled every limb, it pulled every muscle. Even after getting rest from those sleepless nights where Richmond and his whole world went to shit, he was still exhausted. The mourning was ever draining.</p><p>Finally getting the chance to rest made it all sink in more. Before, he could convince himself it would all be over when the fighting was done. That in the end it would be okay, and “okay” meant Kate and Mariana would be with them. But that wasn’t true. They were gone, Javier would never see them again, he would never hear their voice, or smile with them, or even watch them from afar. Unless in a dream, the kind that would wake him up with his body begging to hold them once more.</p><p>Javier sat up on the bed, he was awake now, the last few years had done nothing but change him and becoming a light sleeper was a part of that. It was night, and inside David’s house the only light he could see was the pale, bright moon streaking through the windows. It outlined Gabriel’s face, twisted and asleep in the sleeping bag below.</p><p>It had been a week since it all happened. A week since they had buried Kate, only a little longer since Mariana… They lived in David’s house now. His brother had invited them in, and said sparingly little to them since. He refused to talk to his brother or son, he avoided them, most nights he had not even been in his house. Javier assumed he was grieving, in his own way. Separated and alone to avoid being vulnerable. Or perhaps Gabe was right; that David was angry at them. Javier unfortunately believed it was most likely both. </p><p>The air felt too still, it held onto Javier’s feelings and in the dark and in the night it magnified them. Javier was out of tears to give, out of energy to wipe them away. He needed fresh air.</p><p>The former baseball player carefully stepped over the body of his sleeping nephew. Before he left the house, he grabbed a gun off of the bedstanded and pulled his shoes back on. The walls were sealed now, but the urge to protect from <em>muertos</em> behind any corner was now a tangible part of himself. That anxiety felt like another limb at this point.</p><p>Javier stepped down from the porch and put his gun in the waistband of his jeans, before slipping his hands in his pockets and just walking around. It wasn’t cold yet, autumn was coming but tonight the sky was clear and warm. As Javier left the side-street alley where David’s house resided, he began to feel the tension within himself dissipate into the air around him, it left with the gentle passing of each night time breeze.</p><p>It was quiet. The normal sounds of a city at night were gone, absent. There were no cars passing through the streets along the square, there were no people crawling back from bars with their friends or lovers. Out here, it was just him and the night sky.</p><p>Javier sat down on a bench, and looked upwards. The air was so clear, the stars clearly defined. One benefit of the world ending: no light pollution. Mariana liked the stars. Somewhere on the road, they found her a book about constellations. She read that thing cover to cover more times than they could count. Javier could almost hear her next to him pointing out Orion...if he closed his eyes he might be able to imagine her beside him…</p><p>Javier felt something shift in his back pocket and poke at him. Oh, how could he forget...Kate’s necklace. A gold choker with a little crescent moon. Throughout their time on the road, she always had it on her neck. Javier pulled it out and looked at the dainy thing in his hand. He wondered what it meant to her. Was it an expensive piece, once given by a friend? By David? Or something she bought for herself in an outlet store? Did she keep it all this time out of sentimentality, or was it just the last remaining piece of refinement she had in this hell?</p><p>Javier never asked, it didn’t really occur to him. The times she caught him staring he wasn’t looking at her necklace, it was because he was staring at her. Her green eyes, her hair, her freckles, her smile… <em>her.</em> He wondered if he had stared at her in enough detail to remember for the rest of his life…</p><p>It was wrong to take her necklace before they buried her, and Javier knew that. He kept it with him as a secret, not even Gabe knew. He would return it one day. He’d bring it back to her grave with an offering of flowers and another apology. But for now, he needed a piece of her with him. He needed to hold on to what memories of her he had left, and accept he would make no new ones with her anymore…</p><p>Javier clenched his fist together, balling the necklace into his palm, and brought it to his lips. He held it there, not quite a kiss nor an embrace. Just...close.</p><p>He sat there, not sure for how long. Drinking in the Big Dipper and all its neighboring stars. He sat there in reflection, and waited the pain out. It didn’t dull, but it lessened. It came in waves and he rode one out. He could enjoy the moment of peace before the pain rolled back.</p><p>However, it was the sound of something else rolling that broke the silence of the night.</p><p>It was the metallic squeak of a wheelchair, Javier looked around the square and found Luke across it. The other man was out near the alley leading to the hospital, what was he doing here this late at night? How did he get out by himself?</p><p>Javier hadn’t seen the man since...well, Clementine left. Luke’s injuries from trying to save Richmond were severe, and he had been confined to the hospital since. Javier didn’t know the man too well, but he trusted him more than most he had met in Richmond. They had saved each other’s lives a handful of times when that all happened. Well, that’s par for the course of acquaintances these days. They either end up quickly dead or indebted to you, and vice versa. </p><p>“Luke?” Javier spoke up so that the other would hear him. He slipped the necklace back into his pocket as he approached, soon crossing the distance. “What are you doing out here?”</p><p>Luke picked his head up and looked around, soon seeing Javier in the moonlight. “Oh, I could ask the same for you.” Luke turned the wheels of his chair to face Javier, but it was difficult to maneuver on the cobblestone. He also hadn’t expected to see anyone this late at night. “I’m just tryin’ to get some fresh air...it’s stuffy in there.” Luke gestured his head back down the road towards the hospital.</p><p>“I get that.” Javier half-heartedly shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve just got a question for you.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“How did you break out of there on your own?” Javier asked. “I mean- don’t get me wrong, your new wheels look sick, but they don’t look like they could go down stairs exactly.”</p><p>Luke chuckled and shook his head. “There’s a manual elevator. And I asked Eleanor to bring me down.”</p><p>“Eleanor?”</p><p>“Yeah, she took the night shift from Lingard. Lotta sick folks in there...can’t have any of ‘em turn without watch.” Luke shook his head. The smell of death and injury in there was too much. So many got bit in that herd, some had to hastily chop off limbs and now were fighting the more mundane infections, however still deadly. “Your friend has been a big help after all this.”</p><p>“She’s not a friend.” Javier crossed his arms, his words were firm but not directed at Luke for his mistake. Eleanor had betrayed them and gotten Tripp killed, that wasn’t forgiven quickly.</p><p>“Oh. My bad.” Luke dropped it. “Now I’ve gotta question for you: what’re you doin’ out here so late at night?”</p><p>“Going for a walk…” Javier answered. “I just need to clear my head, you know? Get my mind off it.”</p><p>“I do know.” Luke nodded. Luke could see what happened was weighing heavy on his mind, as it did him as well. Javier had lost people in all of this, though...it must have been crushing. He looked side to side down the street, and considered letting Javier in on a secret… Well, fuck it. Javi seemed cool. “I’ve got sumthin’ that might help with that, if you’re interested.”</p><p>Javier raised an eyebrow. </p><p>“Follow me,” Luke gripped onto the wheel handles of his chair and started to push forward down the road, though his wheels kept getting caught between the stones and pushing forward hurt his hip. Luke grit his teeth from it.</p><p>“Here,” Javier came forward and held onto the hand grips on the back of the chair. “Show the way.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Whoa.”</p><p>“I know, right?” Luke said, “I’m rather proud of it.”</p><p>Behind a tall fence was an empty lot. Only it wasn’t empty; there were tons of plants growing, all of which in the same variety.</p><p>“That is a lot of weed.” Javier nodded.</p><p>“It sure is,” Luke wheeled himself further between the plant beds, coming to a small storage shed near the back. “I like to call it ‘The Secret Garden,’ like that old book.” It was a book Hannah liked to read...but Luke thought she would disapprove of his joke. </p><p>“Didn’t take you for much of a stoner, Luke.” Javier touched the leaves of a plant near him. “But first impressions often fail me.”</p><p>“I’m not, really.” Luke said as he opened the small shed to reveal a drying rack. It was a small operation out here. “I just thought it would be useful. Rest of the council agreed. Except David.” Luke turned back around to look at Javi. “By the way, don’t tell David ‘bout this.”</p><p>“Oh I won’t.” Javier laughed, he followed Luke further in and shut the fence door behind them. He knew his brother well, and drug use was something David was staunchly against. His authoritative personality broke way to that. “So what’s this all for, then?”</p><p>“Well, lotta things really.” Luke looked around for some dry leaves and some rolling paper. “When Frontier took over Richmond, we found a backyard overgrown with this stuff. David wanted it all gone, but I was able to talk the other council members into it. Joan thought it would be good to trade-”</p><p>“I agree with her there.” Javier knew what the asking prices were for drugs out there. It seemed after anyone got their food sorted out, they wanted something to numb themselves from it all.</p><p>“-and Clint thought hemp would be good for rope, he didn’t need much convincing, and Lingard thought it could be good for pain relief. Given all the pain relief that we lose on him, it’s good he ain’t against this.” Luke wet the ends of the rolling paper with his tongue. “And me, well. I’m in charge of agriculture. Not gonna pass up any plant, right?” Luke raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“Can’t argue with that.” Javier let out a soft, friendly chuckle. Soon enough Luke handed him a joint, and Javier took it. Javier patted his pockets, but realized he lost his lighter a long time ago. </p><p>“Here,” Luke handed his lighter to Javier once he took a first hit off his own joint.</p><p>“Thanks,” Javier lit his own before handing it back. Looking around, there was nowhere to really sit down, so he decided to rest himself on a tree stump near the fence. They sat in the quiet for a while, and then Javi spoke up. “Is this really good for your concussion?”</p><p>“No,” Luke coughed, “But it helps with the headache.”</p><p>“Fair enough.” </p><p>Both laughed.</p><p>“So, what’s on your mind?” Luke asked, he was looking at Javier half-tilted.</p><p>“I thought the point of this was to get it <em>off</em> my mind.” Javier half-squinted his eyes.</p><p>“Originally, but call me nosey I guess.” Luke inhaled again, then spoke after exhaling. “I’ve found the best way to get sumthin’ off the mind is to get it off the chest first. Talk to me.”</p><p>Javier let out a long sigh, he looked into Luke’s eyes and weighed the options of speaking. If he did...maybe this pain could lessen. He couldn’t speak to David, and there were things he couldn't tell Gabe… Luke seemed trustworthy, he had proved it to him before. So...Javier spoke. “Well...they’re gone now. Life was just normal. We just stopped to scavenge some food, and then it all went to shit. Now Mari’s gone, and Kate’s gone...just like that.”</p><p>Luke stayed quiet, he just listened, but when Javi said nothing more, he spoke. “You kept yourselves together for as long as you did, and that’s impressive. Most folks didn’t get that…” Luke lost his parents very near the beginning, and everyone else a long time ago… “I’m not saying you’re lucky, I’m not saying that losin’ your folks was overdue, but I am saying you got more time with ‘em than others got with theirs. There’s comfort in that.”</p><p>“I...I guess there is.” When his grief became too much to bear, Javier would often look to their memories on the road. Nights where they curled up by a campfire and sang together, the smiles of little victories, the games they played and books they read to pass the time together. He had those memories, they built them as a family to last. “It’s just-” Javier swallowed, “It’s just I left so much unsaid, you know? To Mari, and to Kate. Stuff they’ll never get to hear and that I can never say. And I can’t say it to Gabe and definitely not David…”</p><p>“I know what you mean.” Luke said, “That stuff is the most haunting…” There was another pause, another deep inhale and exhale. “You loved Kate. I can tell.”</p><p>Javier looked at Luke. He wouldn’t fight that statement, he wouldn’t lie. He wouldn’t let his rejection be a further insult to her memory.</p><p>“I know what it’s like to lose someone without telling them you love them…without a goodbye.” Luke was staring ahead. Not in memory, as those became too tainted in regret for him to look back on. Not his time with Nick, nor with Jane. “I can’t say that it’ll stop hurtin’, or that it’ll feel <em>okay</em> one day. But just know that if you really loved them; they <em>knew.</em> Words shared or not.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Javier nodded. Kate knew. He just wished...wished that she said her side earlier. “What happened to her? The night everything happened, when you two went to close the leak. How did she get bit?”</p><p>Luke exhaled again and shook his head. “Gonna be honest, I don’t remember a lot of that day. I remember being on the bulldozer takin’ out lurkers together, and pluggin’ the hole, but after that?” Luke scratches the side of his head, “It goes dark. Sorry.” Luke wanted to give Javier the answers he needed, but Luke didn’t have the answers <em>he</em> needed.</p><p>“Oh…” Javier was hoping to know what happened. That way his head could stop imagining all the horrible things that could have happened, and only think about what <em>did.</em> </p><p>“She did all she could to help Richmond.” Luke added, “I don’t need to remember to know that.” </p><p>Luke hoped that would give some comfort, and it did. Javier knew she would, that was the kind of person Kate was. Someone to own up to her mistakes and do all she could to fix them. It was comforting that others knew her for who she was as well. Javier smiled, though sadly and too the dirt. The necklace in his pocket burned. “She was a good woman.”</p><p>“By those she left behind, I can tell. Reminds me a bit of someone I used to know...” Luke inhaled once more.</p><p>“I want to help rebuild Richmond.” Javier said, Jesus’s advice came back to him. “I don’t want Kate’s sacrifice to go to waste…for everyone we lost to make this place better to be in vain.” Javier met Luke’s eyes once again. “I want to step up. Be a leader. Be there for people.”</p><p>“I admire that.” A pale ribbon of smoke rose from the glowing end of Luke’s joint. “But it’ll take time. Your arrival started this whole mess...people will need to forgive you, then learn to trust you. You gotta earn it.”</p><p>“Then I will.” Javier resolved.</p><p>“I hope you do,” Luke extinguished his finished joint on the armrest of his wheelchair, then wiped the ash off. “I think you might be what Richmond needs, Javi. I’d like to see what you’ve got. The make of your character,” Luke looked over and gave Javier a gentle smile, friendly but inquisitive. “You won’t let me down, will you?”</p><p>“I hope not.” Javier extinguished his own joint by a stump, the smoke fizzled out of his breath and into the night air as he stood back up. “I want to lead us forward.”</p><p>“Me too.” Luke gripped onto the handles of the wheels. “Until then, can I lead you back to the hospital? I think I’m ready to get some shut-eye.”</p><p>“Ah, all done with ‘fresh air’ are you?” Javier raised an eyebrow, but he came over and held the handles out the back of Luke’s chair. “Not a problem.”</p>
<hr/><p>After taking Luke back to the hospital, Javier made his way back to David’s house. His body felt lighter, he wasn’t sure if it was from the drugs or letting go of some of the weight that had been holding him down, but either way it was welcomed. He came in quietly and set his gun down, and stepped over Gabe once again before he sunk himself into bed.</p><p>In a way, he felt like he had taken the first step forward to moving on. He had a goal now, something to work towards and a reason to do so. Who he would need to be to achieve it, he didn’t know. Was it the man he had become through all of this already, or someone else?</p><p>For now, he would rest his head, and enjoy his moment above the deep. Above the grief and sadness that consumed him, for now he would enjoy the comforting memories instead. For tomorrow and moving forward, he would try to keep his way.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>are they in character? did the weed garden come off as too crackfic or does it make sense? lmk</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Life is for the Living</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey. enjoy ❤️</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fresh snow had settled down on Richmond, the fifth of the season so far. Luke had lost track of exact dates long ago, but he was sure it was sometime in January now. Six months had gone by since Richmond and New Frontier had all been turned on their heads, but those that survived were still making it.</p><p>It wasn’t easy to make it this far into winter, but Richmond had persevered through. Many left, how could they not after their trust and foundations of safety had been rocked and broken? But for as many left, more stayed. They remained in the settlement and attempted to rebuild, to continue with the dream of a better life.</p><p>Luke was working on that dream; now with his leg healed he could work on his feet once more. His bones still ached, he walked with a limp, he had a cane to stay upright, but he was walking on his own.</p><p>After the fresh snow, Luke had gone to the greenhouses to brush it off the top, so that the crops wouldn’t wither in the dark. He had others help him before, but now he was enjoying time by himself repotting sproutlings. After months in the hospital with not much to do, getting his hands busy felt great. Come spring, the food should be more plentiful...but for now they would have to subsist on last fall’s preserves.</p><p>It was cold outside, but the greenhouses were always warmer. Their structure blocked out the breeze and magnified warmth. It wasn’t unusual to see people hide in here when it got too cold and they wanted to save firewood. Perhaps that’s why the youngest García was lurking outside the door?</p><p>“You can come on in, Gabe,” Luke said to the boy waiting outside the door. “Could use your help with this.” Luke gestured to the task at hand.</p><p>Gabriel came into the greenhouses. He, like many others in the community, had been given jobs working in the greenhouses before. It was the main chore they gave the kids, it kept them safe and it kept them useful. </p><p>“Hey, Luke.” Gabe came in and took off his gloves, the past few months working with this stuff made him comfortable and competent with gardening.</p><p>“What’s goin’ on, kid?” Luke asked in a friendly manner. He had been around Gabe a fair bit since he got out of the hospital a few weeks ago, and he had found that Gabe liked being talked to. As most people do, but for a kid like Gabe it’s because he had a lot on his mind. However, he was rather shy at first. As Javier had told him on another one of their “nighttime gardening” trips, Gabe spent nearly half of his life in a van with only his closest family. Kid had some people skills to brush up on.</p><p>“Nothing.” Gabe said a little too quickly.</p><p>“Ah, kid, don’t give me that.” Luke said, nudging the boy with his elbow a bit.</p><p>Gabe huffed and shook his head. “It’s just...my dad is being <em>weird.”</em></p><p>“How so?”</p><p>“Well…” Gabe didn’t know how to put it. Once the fighting was all over, David avoided his family for a long time. Anger, resentment, alienation, loss… That’s what Gabe and his uncle could guess was going through his head, but they could never tell. David refused to see them at first, then eventually spoke so distantly and professionally it was confusing. Now...he was back in the house again, and seemingly trying to overcompensate for all the time he lost with his son. He would flip from being the illusion of the dad Gabe remembered, and being someone new who demanded and expected more from his son. “He’s just being <em>weird.”</em> He was being his dad again...why did it feel so wrong?</p><p>“Hmm,” Luke hummed, he let the subject drop. Gabe clearly hadn’t sorted out what he needed to yet.</p><p>“Luke, can I ask you something?” Gabe said, the pot in his hand was held still between chapped, red knuckles.</p><p>“Sure; shoot.”</p><p>“How- how can I be more badass?!” Gabe said, he seemed embarrassed and desperate to know.</p><p>Luke let out a confused and short chuckle. “I’m flattered you’d ask, but I don’t think I’m a master of the trade.”</p><p>“Clementine’s a badass, and you two are friends. You taught Clementine, right?” Gabe blushed, though it was hard to tell if the rouging cheeks was from the cold. “I just… I just need to be better. I wanted to know if you could teach me too.”</p><p>Luke raised his eyebrows slightly and held a soft smile. Ah, young love. Gabe’s crush on Clementine was still strong, even after her six month absence. “Wish there was sumthin’ I could tell ya, but Clem was like that when I met her. If anything, you’ve got that the wrong way ‘round. <em>She</em> taught <em>me.”</em></p><p>“Oh.” Gabe looked down at his sproutling disappointed.</p><p>“I know.” Luke playfully sighed and shrugged his shoulders.“The illusion is shattered. Sorry to disappoint.”</p><p>Gabe didn’t respond at all, he kept his eyes down and his face remained the same.</p><p>“...Why the sudden interest in being a ‘badass?’” Luke asked, wanting to know what prompted this.</p><p>Gabe chewed the inner corner of his lip. “My Dad and Uncle Javi are treating me like I’m a little kid again.” At home, it felt like Gabe couldn’t be trusted with anything, especially not his own safety. It felt like they never wanted him to be anywhere alone, always have his gun on him, stay inside the walls. Things that Gabe already knew about the rules of survival were being rehashed every time he left the house, and to a teenager on the cusp of a rebellious phase it was too much. His sister was dead, and now it felt like they were doing everything they could to protect <em>him.</em>  “I <em>don’t</em> want to be that anymore.” After meeting Clementine, Gabe felt his eyes open. He was in awe with her; her independence, strength, smarts. She could survive in this world. Gabe wanted to be like her, <em>and</em> be good enough <em>for</em> her.</p><p>“If you wanna be a man, you can’t prove that by puffin’ your chest out or wavin’ a gun around.” Luke said. “You gotta be able to handle yourself, and know how to handle other people.”</p><p>“Yeah…” Gabe knew his futile attempts to show he was grown only pushed him back further from achieving what he needed. He came off as more reckless. This advice seemed potent, but discouraging. Gabe continued to re-pot the sproutlings in thought.</p><p>Luke saw that Gabriel didn’t speak again, and turned his head back to continue his work as well.</p>
<hr/><p>“Alright. Keep your head down, eyes up, and legs apart,” Javier instructed. “You got your sights on the pitcher? Good. Grip the bat, eyes on the ball, watch it-” Javier was cut off by the sound of a baseball being struck, he grinned and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Go!” he cheered on.</p><p>Tammy, the young girl that Javier was walking through batting, took off across the make-shift baseball diamond and ran after the ball. Javier cheered her on as she ran to the next base, and the next, but <em>awed</em> with the rest when she was caught before. “It’s okay, kid.” He patted her back on her padded coat, “Good game.”</p><p>Javier had been teaching the kids of Richmond to play baseball. There wasn’t much else to do this time of year, and keeping them active was important. Plus, he loves baseball. And he’s good at it. It was a win-win for everyone.</p><p>There were a lot of kids at Richmond, at least more than Javier had seen in any other group. The people who stayed behind after the chaos where people who wanted to rebuild, people who needed the safety of their walls. People who had something to lose, and something to protect…</p><p>It stung at times. When Javier would see children running around and playing with one another the same way Mariana and Gabriel would when they were younger. Or when he’d see their parents checking in on them the way he did. When he would see mothers with their little girls, and remember seeing Kate and Mariana from afar… It just stung, but it also made him feel less alone to have people that depended on him again.</p><p>Over the last six months, Javier had been gaining the trust of Richmond’s survivors. He put himself out there, he was making connections and doing the work to rebuild. Luke was no small help in all of this, as he had delegated tasks to Javier while still in the hospital. Javier had a lot to thank him for, but the main thing that boosted Javier’s voice in the community was the decision he helped make for Richmond once the dust settled.</p><p>Richmond had to come to a very important decision regarding Joan’s actions. The supplies she had stolen, the warehouse full of everything they would need to make it through the next two winters with ease, were in convention. As was New Frontier itself. Whether they should keep the goods, or return them to the rightful settlements? Whether to stay banded as the New Frontier, or transform into a new collective? How could they move forward after all she had done? The community was spilt, but in the end one voice came out the strongest and won them over: Javier.</p><p>Javier’s family had been broken due to the consequences of such raids, and he had seen the carnage first hand. If Richmond was going to improve, it needed to do so with other settlement’s <em>support,</em> not stolen goods. The New Frontier that Joan had been in control of was tarnished and unsalvageable, the trust was gone. The supplies were returned, and New Frontier disbanded. Now, they would no longer be a survivalist group that took over cities and raided other communities, but they would be a community, one with a home and a name to remember it: New Richmond.</p><p>They reelected their leaders, starting fresh but with familiar and trusted faces. Luke would return to the agriculture production, Clint for development and engineering, Lingard for medical, and, though some lost their faith in him, David returned for securities. However, in Joan’s absence for “diplomatic connections” with other settlements, a new face was elected: Conrad. He was from Prescott, he had been a victim of Joan’s tactics, and New Richmond thought that those things would prove to the other settlements that things for them were changing for the better.</p><p>“Alright!” Javier clapped his gloved hands together and looked out at the dozen or so kids. “Who’s ready for lunch?!” He was met with some enthusiastic and hungry cheers.</p><p>With the limited amount of food supplies they had left, New Richmond had a practice of communal feeding. At set times every day meals would be handed out at the Church. This helped to conserve what they had and make sure to account for everyone. Javier led the children to the church, where they were given out their bowls of stew and rejoined their parents. </p><p>Once getting his own bowl, he spotted Luke and Gabriel entering the building with one another. He waved the two of them to sit over at the table he was at, but only Luke joined him. Gabriel instead elected to sit with the kids his age he had made friends with.</p><p>“Hey, Luke.” Javier gestured for Luke to sit across the table from him. The two ate together fairly often, they had become good friends these last few months.</p><p>“Howdy, Javi.” Luke sat down with his stew across from Javier.</p><p>Javier chuckled, <em>“Howdy?”</em></p><p>“What can I say? I’m a country boy, Javier.” Luke raised his eyebrows playfully for a second before he took his first bite of soup. </p><p>“Ah, I see. The accent made me suspicious, but it was the farming that really tipped me off.” Javier joked. He took another spoonful of his soup and looked off to Gabriel again. He was sitting with some other teenagers, Jude and Andy, a brother and sister pair of survivors. It was good to see him with kids his age again, to see him making <em>friends.</em> Maybe he could have some semblance of normal teenhood here… “Ah, I see someone’s too cool to sit with his uncle anymore.”</p><p>“Ah,” Luke looked off to the teens as well, it seemed they were laughing and joking with one another. “Cafeteria politics. He’s sittin’ with the popular kids now.”</p><p>“Aren’t we the popular kids?” Javier raised one eyebrow.</p><p>Luke shrugged, “Who’s to say.”</p><p>“Hmmm, <em>high school.”</em></p><p>“Can’t say I miss it either.”</p><p>Both men shook their heads and chuckled, ten turned back to their bowls.</p><p>“Y’know, Gabe ‘n’ me had a chat back in the greenhouses.”</p><p>“Really?” Javier was curious, “What about?”</p><p>“Kid asked me to give him badass lessons.” Luke shrugged in amusement, “‘Said I wasn’t qualified.”</p><p>“Hey, you’re a badass, Luke.” Javier had seen what Luke was capable of, back when all that shit went down.</p><p>Luke looked up with puzzled brows, “As much of one as Clementine?”</p><p>“No, no. She’s a grade-A.” Javier conceded, “Girl would run laps around any of us in a Badass Olympics.”</p><p>“That’s what I said,” Luke nodded, “Though I’m flattered your nephew thinks I was her coach.”</p><p>Both chuckle once again, and enjoy more of the stew.</p><p>“So, what brought that on?” Javier asked. Why would his nephew go to Luke? Why the sudden interest in being independent?</p><p>“Well…” Luke looked over at Gabe. He didn’t want to spill what the boy brought him in confidence, but it felt important for Javi to know. “I think it’s just the classic teenage urge to be seen as an adult. Told me he’s tired of being treated like a little kid.” Luke said.</p><p>Javier sighed, he knew that Gabe was growing up, but he just didn’t want anything to happen to him. He didn’t want their family to become more broken than it already was. “It’s only natural, I guess.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Luke nodded. While he did try to reign Clementine in at times, he knew he could never really control that girl. But it must be different when it’s a child you raised… There was a pause, and they continued eating. “Though, I think it was partly just him bein’ so sweet on ‘er.”</p><p>Javier exhaled fondly, “He’s still crushing hard, huh?”</p><p>“Big time.” Luke nodded. A few minutes went by, and some of the New Richmond members left the church, being done with their meals. “What’s your plans for the rest of the day?” Luke asked.</p><p>“Well, I think the kids are tired out from baseball, so probably not that.” Javier shrugged. “Why do you ask? Are you thinking…” Javier raised two fingers to his lips to subtly pantomime smoking. They had gone and gotten high together a couple times, but after winter hit and the plants died out, not so much.</p><p>Luke chuckled and shook his head, “While that would be fun, I’ve got something more boring in mind. I’ve been meaning to set up fishin’ traps out on the river, but I haven’t gotten the chance to scout some spots out.”</p><p>“Fish? God, I would kill for some fish right now.” Javier hadn’t been a fan of it in the past, but going the past few months with only chicken eggs as protein was enough to make his mouth salivate at the thought of real meat. It was enough for him to think of <em>fish</em> as real meat.</p><p>“Ideally, you’d kill a fish.” Luke said. “If we spot some out there, you might just get the chance.”</p><p>Javier nodded, he would like that. “Alright. Need me to go with you?”</p><p>“It’s why I asked.” Luke said. He was back on his feet, but he didn’t want to go outside the walls alone. If lurkers surrounded him...he probably couldn’t outrun them.</p><p>“Sure,” Javier brought his bowl up to his lips and drank what remained of his lunch, then wiped his mouth with the side of his hand. “Let’s go.”</p><p>“Hold your horses,” Luke put a hand up. “I gotta finish first.”</p>
<hr/><p>“So, what you’re saying is, you doubt my baseball talent?” Javier’s banter escaped with fogged breaths, down here by the banks of the James River the air was colder.</p><p>“No, I’m just saying that if you were playin’ against the Tennessee <em>Volunteers</em> you would lose.”</p><p>“I would have never had to play them. Because they aren’t <em>major league,</em> Luke.”</p><p>“And I bet you’re happy for it.” Luke teased. He used to be a baseball fan, and before the world went to shit his alma mater’s college team was doing quite well. Plus, he and Javier just liked to yank each other’s chains.</p><p>“So...see any fish?” Javier looked out at the river as well, but he didn’t know what Luke was really looking for. Javier’s family were city folk, while he was from Maryland the most fishing he ever did was crabbing with chicken gizzards with the kids as an outing.</p><p>“No,” Luke shook his head, “It’s too cold for that. I’m tryin’ to see spots where we could set up rigs once spring comes, then that’ll do the work for us.” Luke put a hand over his eyes to look out at the river. It was cold, and dead, and partially frozen this deep into winter. “Me and my group did that a couple years back. It worked out well...”</p><p>“...Until?”</p><p>“Until it didn’t.” Luke shrugged. “We had pick up ‘n’ leave for unrelated reasons. That was ‘round the time I met Clem, actually.”</p><p>“Oh, huh. How long ago was that?” Javier never really learned the details of Luke and Clementine’s relationship. With the way Luke answered when he asked, he assumed that it was painful memories.</p><p>“It was...damn, four years ago? Holy shit.” Luke seemed a bit surprised, taken aback by himself. “Has it really been <em>that</em> long?” That long since it all happened? Since AJ was born? Since everyone died?</p><p>Javier did a little mental calculation in his head. “So, you’ve known each other through most of this then, huh?” From what Javier remembered of the years going by, the outbreak started seven years ago, sometime in the summer. It felt like decades.</p><p>“Yeah...guess we have.” Luke nodded, he continued walking forward down the path. He resented that he and Clementine grew apart because of the New Frontier, and that he gave AJ away too. When she came back, he planned to make it right, to fix his mistakes. But she had been gone so long now...when would she come back? “I just hope she gets back with AJ soon.”</p><p>“We all do.” Javier reached a hand out to touch Luke’s shoulder, but the other man didn’t notice. Javier let his arm fall and followed behind Luke, stucking his hands into the pockets of his coat. He looked out at the River again. It was massive, but it was laying rather low at the moment. “Taking care of kids on the road is fucking difficult. I’m impressed you were able to do it yourself for so long.”</p><p>“It is fuckin’ hard, but I wasn’t alone.” Luke shrugged. “There was this woman with us...for a while…” Luke looked off into the woods. He still didn’t like to think about Jane. There was too much regret there… to much <em>pain.</em> “And Clem, well, she took care of AJ like he was her own son. We all kept each other alive, together.”</p><p>“I see that. You all must have had each other’s backs.” Sometimes, Javier missed those days on the road. Mostly he missed Kate and Mariana, but on the road there was comfort in always moving. That as shit things were in the moment, you could pick up and drive somewhere new away from it. Now he had to stay and rebuild, there was a place to rest his head but there were responsibilities here he hadn’t had out there. “The woman; was she AJ’s mom?” Javier had never heard Luke mention a woman before. The stories he told were just him, Clem, and AJ.</p><p>“No. She, uh...she wasn’t.” Luke shook his head. “We lost Rebecca a couple days after AJ was born… She was a friend of mine.” They hadn’t always gotten along when she was alive, but Luke thinks that Rebecca would be thankful that AJ was being watched out for. Sometimes it was hard not to think he let Rebecca down… “Alvin Senior died a couple days before he was born… There was a lotta… <em>unfortunate</em> circumstances back then.”</p><p>“That’s too bad… I’m sorry.” Javier and Kate always tried to keep out of groups and stay away from other people as much as they could. They wanted to keep the kids safe, and felt they could trust no one but themselves. That things would get too messy if they involved others… It seems, in some fucked up way, they were right.</p><p>“I am too.” Luke sighed. He continued looking out onto the river banks, but he stopped walking for now. His breath fogged in front of his face and strands of hair had fallen in front to frame it. </p><p>Javier was staring at him, noticing things about Luke’s features he never had before. He noticed how the sadness of old memories tensed his eyebrows, how it pooled in his big brown eyes. Had Javier ever noticed how big his eyes were before? Javier wanted to say something to break the silence, to make him feel better. “Well...I’m sure AJ’s parents would be happy you two take good care of him.”</p><p>“I sent him away,” Luke shared his regret.</p><p>“You did the best you could, Luke.” Javier said, “And when Clem brings him back you will continue to do so.”</p><p>“Yeah...I love those kids.” Luke confessed.</p><p>“Of course you do.” Javier came to Luke’s side and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You know, originally I thought that Clementine was your niece or something, and AJ was your son. Just...the way you talk about them. They’re family to you, to doubt about it.”</p><p>Luke nodded. Looking out, he could see it was starting to snow once more. “Clementine’s a sister to me, after I’ve lost my own. And AJ is, well, he’s the child I… the child I <em>almost</em> had.”</p><p>Javier could feel Luke’s loss from where he was standing, but he could also feel Luke’s devotion. Javier wanted to find something to say, but he couldn’t find the right words. He didn’t think there were any right ones at all. He had his questions, of course, but he would hold restraint to avoid prying too deeply. Sometimes showing you care for someone could feel invasive. Luke had been there for Javi, on nights when he was thinking about Kate and Mari and needed to speak about things he couldn’t with Gabe. Or on nights when he just needed distractions. His grief was still fresh then, it overtook his mind, but as time went by that ache was put on a back burner. Javier was starting to feel like his old self again, thanks to his friend. He wanted to be there for Luke too, if that was what he needed.</p><p>Luke said nothing either, their conversation faded away. His eyes came up from the riverbanks and up to the sky, there was snow falling. “We should hurry up, before the snow gets in our way.” Luke walked away, and Javier’s hand fell off his shoulder.</p><p>They walked down the bank further just a bit, until Luke stopped by an outcropping to look around. Luke was a couple yards away, and Javier was pacing around himself. The river was low here, and near the banks completely frozen. Out of curiosity, Javier stepped out onto the ice. “Huh. Frozen solid.” He said to himself, and took some more steps. He’d never walked across frozen water before. </p><p>“Hey Luke!” Javier cupped his hands around his mouth and turned toward the other man. “Pretty <em>cool</em> right? Get it, because the...nevermind.” Javier had expected an amused shrug, maybe a joking comment at most. What he didn’t expect to see was the color drain from Luke’s face and sheer, barely restrained terror in his eyes.</p><p>“Javi- Javier! Be careful!” Luke shouted. He wanted to run up closer, but his feet felt drilled into the ground. His legs refused to move. “Get back here <em>right now!”</em> Luke warned, the panic in his voice was barely constrained. He could hear the ice cracking, he felt himself balancing on it with precarious and panicked breath. Oh God, Oh Jesus Christ he felt the water seeping up his legs already.</p><p>“Luke?” Javier was alarmed by this reaction, but he listened. He got off the ice and back on the rocky shore, and nothing happened. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>Puffed, quick breaths fogged out of Luke’s mouth, but soon seeing Javier firmly back on land evened and slowed them out. By the time the García was back next to him, the relief had soaked through instead. “It’s-” Luke cut himself off. He didn’t want to explain. “Don’t worry about it. I just...don’t trust ice.”</p><p>Javier raised an eyebrow, <em>“O-kay,”</em> he stretched out the word.</p><p>“Let’s get goin’. The snow is pickin’ up.” Luke started to walk off back towards Richmond. Despite the cold, he took the scarf around his neck off. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.</p><p>Javier, although confused, still followed behind. “Yeah, let’s get back to the Church. See if anyone lit a bonfire.” Javier slipped his gloved hands into his coat pockets once more, and there he felt it. Kate’s necklace, still there, still present with him. He chewed the inside of his lip. “Actually, there’s somewhere I need to stop first.”</p>
<hr/><p>They were just outside the gates. Javier waved Luke off as he entered, but Javier had some business of his own.</p><p>In these streets buried in the snow, he found the empty lot and dogwood tree. There was no headstone for Kate’s grave, but the tree showed him where they had laid her to rest. There was no name to mark her presence, but once spring would come her resting place would be filled with flowers.</p><p>Javier approached her grave, her necklace in hand. “Hey, Kate… I’m sorry it’s been a while…” Javier spoke to the grave. It felt unsettling to do so. The times he was here before, he had sat in quiet contemplation, thinking of what he wished he could say to her, but never speaking the words out loud. “I took this. I shouldn’t have, but I think you would get why…” Javier stepped forward and hung the necklace on a branch. "Still. I'm sorry. Forgive me, will you?... For everything?"</p><p>Javier stepped back, and watched the gold chain swing on the branch, surrounded by the show. He saw his footsteps, gray shapes, outlining where her body was. The snow filled his tracks, as Javier had realized he had begun to fill the absence of her and Mariana. He had found things in his life to make it worth continuing. He would live in remembrance of their absence, but not in spite of it, not because of it either. For live was for the living.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>soooooo that's the second chapter. did i get them in character? i felt like their conversations might have fallen a little flat, especially gabe and luke's. idk i said i wanted gabe to have rights in this story but he's so annoying...</p><p>i think i've built up new richmond well. is it good? lemme know.</p><p>ALSO: i'm thinking of writing two "the wolf among us" fanfictions. <del>because why stop at resurrecting <em>one</em> telltale hyperfixation</del> the plot of one is basically an AU where bigby and faith had a relationship before the fabletown murders. it's angsty, it's intimate, and it's painful. my delicacy. the second one is where bigby finds an infant left at the steps of the woodlands. at first, they question if the newborn is even a fable, but one the glamor fades they realize the child is an animal fable (a newborn fox pup) that has been left at the door. it takes place over a few years of bigby trying to track down the mother, but also just as the kid grows up in the woodlands. it's cute what can i say. bigby has a soft spot for children, and he's the only animal fable in the goddamn woodlands so he actually ends up teaching the kid important aspects of pretending to be human. let me know if you'd be interested in reading these. ✌️</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Hearth & Homes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>did i just drop a chapter longer than previous two combined? yes. enjoy.</p><p>btw prepare for just a lot of pain. like emotionally. but also funny shit.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>“Pssspssspss,”</em> Luke gently hissed out. He was right off of the porch of the townhouse he had claimed, bent over and trying to look under the stairs. However, with his hip and cane, getting down on his knees would not be a good option.</p><p>He swore he saw it again, he saw the little furry tail slip under his porch when he started to make his way to the Church dining hall. It was a cat; there <em>had</em> to be a cat living under his porch. Luke had gotten glimpses of it these past couple of weeks, but never up close. With spring now in bloom, it must have decided to make itself a home under his porch. </p><p>Luke gently called out once more and crouched his knees a bit, and that’s when he saw it. A pair of green eyes with slit black pupils, the rest of its face obscured by shadows of his steps. Luke took a step forward, and to his surprise the creature did as well. He stood completely still as the cat took a step outwards towards him, sniffed the end of his cane, then went back to safety. Testing his luck, Luke reached his hand downward. The animal then came out and pet himself against Luke’s hand, but scurried away at the slightest twitch of his fingers. The friendliness was...unusual.</p><p>It was scrawny, not emaciated but still on the thinner side. It’s coat was orange and black, and it had the build of a kitten close to being a grown cat. Had it just been thrown out into the world by its mother, and now found refuge under Luke’s porch? Perhaps, but Luke couldn’t dwell on this; he had to get to the Church. He took a last look under the porch, but the animal had slipped away. With that, he returned to his original reason for leaving his house.</p><p>It was his turn on the cooking rotation; tonight he and some others would help the regular cooks with dinner. New Richmond still did communal eating, even now with spring around and their crops flourishing. The community had found that it was still the best way to conserve resources, bring people together, and was a massive time saver. He often volunteered to help in the kitchens. With his leg how it was, he wasn’t able to do many of the other tasks New Richmond needed. Patrols, herd tracking, even getting down on his knees to work in the gardens were things now out of his reach...it felt good having something to do and people to be around.</p><p>Plus: the cooks get second helpings.</p><p>Luke walked down the secured streets of New Richmond until he came back to the Church. Looking up at the large building, it was always a bit imposing. The church he went to growing up was small, local; tiny in comparison to the kinds of cathedrals a congregation could build in a city. (Then again, “Catholics always were the flashy ones” as his father put it.) Still, the sense of community he felt in that rinky church felt returned to him in this building, though with the spirituality not so organized (if non-existant). Sometimes on cool Sunday mornings he could come across someone praying, but there were no services. For that, Luke felt both glad and nostalgic.</p><p>On the top of the steps near the door were two familiar faces engaged in conversation: Ava and Clint. As Luke approached, he could hear a bit of what they were talking about, but not much. It sounded like future plans for New Richmond. Clint glanced down the stairs, and with his hands in his pockets nodded to acknowledge Luke. “Hey.”</p><p>“Hey, Clint.” Luke said. He came and stood near them to join the conversation. “What’re you two talkin’ ‘bout?”</p><p>Luke and Clint’s relationship was repaired, but it would never again be the same. Clint had sided with Joan, and threw Luke down the river for her. When Luke first became a leader in New Frontier, it had been Clint who he was the closest to. The older man was one he did the most projects with, and had been a mentor. Luke trusted him as a friend, possibly his closest in this community, and had entrusted him with knowing what he had been doing secretly for his own interests. Clint said that he understood Luke had to trade supplies to other communities for Clementine’s safety, yet he used that knowledge against Luke when it became beneficial to Joan. While it was Joan that hung Luke on the gallows, it was Clint who marched him there. </p><p>Once it was all over, Clint had come to Luke and apologized with genuine remorse. And...after some time, Luke forgave Clint for what he had done. There was too much work to do and too many people that depended on him for Luke to let personal resentments or grudges hold New Richmond back. After what happened, everyone needed to have a fresh start. While he had forgiven Clint, he would never again trust him in a personal sense, and would never again consider him a close friend.</p><p>“Me and the team secured more areas leading out of the city.” Ava said, “We’ve managed to take some land that could be used for pastures.” Livestock had been a goal for New Richmond for over a year now, but it would take a lot of work.</p><p>“But it’ll take a helluva lot of fencing to make them secure.” Clint added on.</p><p>“Yeah, I get that.” Luke nodded. “But gettin’ horses as soon as possible should be key.” This deep into the end of the world, gas was beginning to run low and go bad. Luke never knew <em>gas</em> could expire, but after siphoning some truly nasty and useless stuff that had become clear. As they had seen from the Kingdom community, horses were highly useful. They could be used for transportation, walker herding, wagon carrying, and plowing. Luke was a country boy, but using horses to plow fields was still <em>way</em> before his time. It would take work to remember and relearn the skills of their ancestors, but in order to live in this new world, there were things they needed to bring back to survive.</p><p>“Of course. We need to save all the gas we can before I can set up other power sources.” Clint agreed. He had always been somewhat of a survivalist, someone who worked with his own hands to solve problems. Which is probably why he became an electrician and carpenter. Sustainability and reliability had always been the forefront of Clint’s work in New Richmond. It was him who planned the walls and rigged the electrical pulley system to open it, got the lights working in a few buildings at night, and it was him who planned a rain collection system so that the community wouldn’t have to bring water up from the river. There were still things he was working on, but his highest priority at the moment was setting up a hydroelectric power generator using the James River’s flow. Luckily, Luke’s fishing trap worked in tandem with his design. “Speaking of, I’m going to go work out some more logistics before dinner. See you two later.” Clint gave a small wave before heading off on his own.</p><p>As Clint trotted down the stairs, Javier had approached. He saw Ava and Luke from across the square, and thought to go speak to them. “Ava, Luke.” Javier met them near the doors as well.</p><p>“Javier,” Ava said, she patted him roughly on the shoulder to say hello.</p><p>“Hey, Javi.” Luke smiled. Though he had lost a friend in Clint, he felt he had gained one in Javier. The two had become close since it all went down, they enjoyed each other’s company, and Luke could also trust him to do certain things his leg prevented. And since Luke trusted him, the rest of the community could come around to trusting Javier as well. By the day, Javier was getting closer to the promise he made that night Luke snuck out of the hospital, and Luke was glad to see he wasn’t letting him down.</p><p>Javier smiled back, then looked to Ava as well. “Have either of you seen David or Gabe? They left the house together this morning, but I haven’t seen them since.” Javier asked. He thought Ava may have some idea where David would be, and Gabriel often worked alongside Luke or some of the other kids in the greenhouses or gardens. Not knowing where his family was was bringing up some old anxieties, but he had kept them at rest for now. David hadn’t been acting erratic enough lately to try and run off with Gabe again.</p><p>“Nope, haven’t seen ‘em.” Luke shook his head nonchalantly.</p><p>“David took Gabe on our patrol.” Ava said. “David said he wanted to teach Gabe to be a soldier.”</p><p>“A soldier?” Javier’s brows creased and the inklings of an angry frown tugged at his lips. <em>“David…”</em> Javier looked off and shook his head. Of course that’s what David would do, and without even asking.</p><p>“Kid needs to know how to use a <em>real</em> gun.” Ava said, she patted the barrel of the assault rifle up by her shoulder. “And how to fight without it.”</p><p>“...Ain’t good for Gabe to spend some time with his father?” Seeing that this seemed to make Javier disgruntled, Luke also offered a point. There had been many times where they talked about David’s cold and distant behavior. “And if he’s going on patrol with everyone else, I’m sure he’s safe.” Luke looked over at Ava, and the woman nodded.</p><p>“No, I get it.” Javier pinched his nose bridge for a moment. “It’s just that David doesn’t ask about these things.” And that David is trying to make his son just the same as him, just like David tried to make <em>Javier</em> just like him.</p><p>Luke gave a short hum, he understood what Javier really meant. Before they could speak more, the doors of the church opened and a woman stuck her head out.</p><p>“Oh, Luke! I was just about to get you.” She was Winifried (affectionately known as “Winney”), an older woman who was one of the head cooks here at New Richmond. “We outta start supper soon.”</p><p>“Shit, sorry, Winney.” Luke shook his head. “Got distracted on the way over.”</p><p>“That’s fine, son.” Winney nodded. “We’re cooking Rita tonight, by the way.” Rita was a chicken that had recently stopped laying eggs. It was a shame, but they wouldn’t waste their limited feed on a spent hen. At least she could eat like a king to fatten up before slaughter.</p><p>“Ah, Rita.” Luke shook his head fondly. She was one of the first chickens New Frontier had received. Not only did she live through the coup, but she also filled their coup. She had hatched and raised a few dozen chicks. “Well, let’s pay our respects by turnin’ her into some tasty soup.” It was a bit odd to be so casual about eating an animal close to a pet with a name, but Luke grew up on a farm. It was the cycle of life to raise something just to slaughter it.</p><p>“Chicken soup?” Javier’s interest was piqued. Nearly every night and lunch New Richmond had soup. While boring, it was efficient: it was easy to make and hand out to many people at once. However, this was the first time they were going to have <em>chicken</em> soup. Their eggs were too nutritious to justify slaughtering one before. “How are you making it?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Winney gave a half shrug. “Prolly just dice ‘er and throw it in.” Winney was an army cook in the world before. She cooked for quantity, not quality, and with the needs of New Richmond that made her perfectly qualified.</p><p>“Ah, no- That’s no fun. ” Javier smiled and shook his head. “Let me come in and help. My mother taught me a <em>mean</em> chicken soup recipe.” Javier looked between Luke and Winney, the former seemed interested while the latter was a bit wary. “C’mon. You won’t regret it. <em>Mamá</em> was one hell of a cook.”</p><p>“Let’s let ‘im take a crack at it, Winney.” Luke shrugged. “What’s the worst that’ll happen?”</p><p>“Well, alright.” Winney agreed. “Many hands make lighter work, and seeing how late we are we’ll need ‘em.” She waved her hand into the church behind her. “Now you boys get your asses in here. Ava, good to see ya darlin’.” Winney smiled at the bald woman before shutting the doors.</p><p>“Great.” Javier nodded, he and Luke followed her in. “What seasonings do you have in the kitchen right now?”</p><p>“Seasoning?” Winney asked.</p><p><em>“Dios mio.”</em> Javier shook his head and chuckled. “That explains the vegetable soup.”</p><p>“You better watch your mouth, boy, before I toss you out.” Winney threatened, though she did seem playfully amused.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Luke patted a hand on Javier’s shoulder, “I’ve grown some herbs in the back.”</p>
<hr/><p>Just as soon as dinner was finished, it was poured out to the members of New Richmond: all lined up at the kitchen window. With everyone served, Javier took his own bowl and found his own family to sit down with. He hadn’t seen them since morning.</p><p>“I heard you two had a busy day.” Javier sat down at the table. These tables were long, to seat many people, but David had claimed the end of his with Gabriel sitting next to him. Javier chose to sit across from them to speak.</p><p>“Dad took me out on patrol,” Gabe nodded, there was a small proud smile on his face. It was happening: he was being trusted and treated like a man. He looked over at his father, who also had a proud look in his eyes. “It went well.”</p><p>“Glad to hear it.” Javier nodded. He looked over at David, the man putting another spoonful of the soup in his mouth. There was an almost puzzled look on his brother’s face, like he was tasting something he just couldn’t quite place. “Seems familiar, doesn’t it?”</p><p>David raised an eyebrow, “What?”</p><p>“It’s Mamá’s <em>caldo de pollo.”</em> Javier said. “They didn’t have any <em>yutia</em> root, but I always hated it anyway. Left it out.” Javier shrugged.</p><p>“You helped in the kitchen today?” David raised an eyebrow, he shook his head with a teasing pride. “And here I thought you just sat on your ass all day.” He took another bite.</p><p>Internally, Javier felt his stomach boil. Of course, David always belittled or ignored Javier’s accomplishments and made sure his brother knew how little he thought of him. But he would let his anger fizzle out. He had to let go; that’s how he and David were on speaking terms once more. After everything happened, David avoided him for months. He refused to speak with him, and once he did it was never about something important. They would never speak about Kate and Mariana, the wound was too deep and poorly scabbed over, but the silence picked at it. If they spoke, Javier feared both could bleed out. He feared that David would blow up and burn everything down.</p><p>Sometimes David could blow up for no reason, but Javi had dealt with this before. He grew up with David: he knew when to fight and when to just back down, though his brother would think he was a coward.</p><p>David had finally moved back into the house again. <em>His</em> house. After it all happened, he had slept at Ava’s place; some nights even Ava didn’t know where he was. With him home, Javier tried to avoid conflicts for Gabe’s sake. Gabe was so happy to have his father in his life again, and Javier wouldn’t ruin that for him. The kid deserved it.</p><p>Letting it pass, Javier leaned forward with his elbows on the table and spooned a mouthful in.</p><p>“What was it that <em>Mamá</em> used to say?” David asked. <em>“‘Con un buen caldo de pollo se quita todo mal’?”</em></p><p>“No, that was <em>Papá’s</em> saying.” Javier shook his head. He then put on a perfect impression of his mother’s voice: <em>“‘El caldo de pollo levanta hasta los muerto.”</em></p><p>David laughed heartily, <em>“Si ella sólo supiera.”</em></p><p><em>“¿Cómo sabemos que no lo hizo?”</em> Javier jested. The last meal their father ate was her soup, after all.</p><p>It was then both men looked over and saw the thoroughly puzzled face of Gabe, who seemed to be sounding out their words in his head.</p><p>“Hey, what’s the matter with you?” David nudged his son with his elbow. “Don’t you know your <em>Español?”</em></p><p>“Um...not really.” Gabe said. He used to, when he was little and his grandparents would speak to him. But in the years in the van had made him forget, all but the few words his uncle had sprinkled in their vocabulary.</p><p>“Javier, you didn’t teach them Spanish?” David looked over at his brother. “Ah, <em>Mamá</em> would be so disappointed. Well, more than she already was.” David poked at his brother once again.</p><p>“Well, <em>mi hermano,</em> it’s partially on you.” Javier had a slight grin to his face, he was keeping up with the banter he and his brother had rocked back and forth with his whole life. “I’m not the one who kept marrying <em>gringas.”</em> Javier tried to poke at David as well, but he might as well have poked at a hornet’s nest. David’s ex-wife had always been off limits since she left him, and Kate? Christ, that was even worse.</p><p>David’s near friendly demeanor was dropped completely, his spoon clinked loudly against the bowl. “What was that?” His rage was quiet still, the sound of it boiling just beneath the surface and hot enough for both his brother and son to hear.</p><p>“Dad-” Gabe felt immediately alarmed, feeling the same urge to stop his father or calm him down that he had when he was a child, a skill he had to relearn once back in his life. “It was just-”</p><p>“No, Gabriel.” David cast a narrow glare at his son before refocusing on Javier. “I want to know what your uncle meant to say.”</p><p>Javier let out a vaguely nervous and disbelieving laugh, trying to diffuse the tension with humor. As he learned to growing up. “David, c’mon. It’s just a joke man.”</p><p>“Don’t fucking laugh.” David’s voice was raised, but not quite a yell. It was an order. “You don’t <em>get</em> to joke about them.”</p><p>“I wasn’t joking about them.” Javier grew in his own assertiveness, but kept his temper. He was sick of walking on eggshells ― no, glass shards ― around David. He was tired of them pretending that Kate never existed, that Grace never left. Of having to live under the conditions that would keep David able to ignore his own fucking faults and the people he’d hurt. “They don’t <em>belong</em> to you, David. They aren’t your fucking burden or secret.” </p><p>Gabe bit his tongue in fear. His mom...they never talked about her. Sometimes, at night, he and Mariana would try to remember her ― the stories she read to them to bed or hugs off to school ― but she was lost long ago. With Kate, his other mother, he was never able to say her name around his father without causing another week of being frozen out. </p><p>“And when Kate told you that, you said she was <em>dead</em> to you.” Javier’s voice was becoming more hardened, his emotion heavier but contained in the weight. “And now she is. Kate’s fucking gone and you won’t even give her the <em>respect</em> of acknowledging her.”</p><p>“Respect? You want to talk about respect?!” David’s voice was raised, and voices in the tables surrounding became hushed. People were listening. “Where’s the <em>respect</em> in you <em>fucking my wife,</em> Javi!”  The boiling had come to a head, no longer simmering it had exploded.</p><p><em>“Christ,</em> David.” Javier’s anger was boiled over as well. He was still a hotblooded man like his father, like David. He just had a better handle on being provoked. “That’s what you care about?! Your own fucking <em>ego?!</em> More than her! More than your family!?” Javier didn’t register the stares at his back.</p><p>“Family is <em>everything.”</em> David glared his eyes. “But not to you.”</p><p>“Dad-” Gabe tried to speak up, he put a hand on his father’s shoulder but was shoved away by his father’s powerful side.</p><p>“I was willing to ignore it. Just pretend for <em>Mamá</em> and <em>Papá</em> to see from heaven that I kept us together. For Mariana, and Gabe.” David stressed his words by knocking his fist to the table with each. “We could have just kept pretending.”</p><p><em>“Pretending?</em> Is that what you call that?” Javier’s voice held the vengeful spirit of a laugh in it. “It’s <em>suffocating</em> to be around you, David. Living in your house is like constantly walking on <em>fucking eggshells.”</em> Javier caught a glance at Gabe, he hadn’t seen the boy this anxious since the collapse. Though he didn’t want to bring him into this, he couldn’t help it. “Grace knew it, Kate knew it, and Gabe knows it <em>too.</em> Thank god Mariana only got the good memories.”</p><p>“How fucking dare you!?” David slammed his fists to the table hard enough for the dishes to rattle, and he stood up with the force. “Don’t say their names.”</p><p>“What?” Javier stood up too, fast enough that his own dish trembled on the table. “You’re just going to own Mariana now too? You didn’t even raise her!”</p><p>“Shut your mouth-”</p><p><em>“Six years,</em> David. I took care of our girl most of her, <em>life. I</em> was the one who read her bedtime stories and kept her safe from the <em>muertos.</em> Braided her hair, watched her grow up, <em>protected</em> her. Me and Kate <em>both!”</em> Javier and his brother were face to face, “Where were you? Huh?! You always talk about family, but where the <em>fuck</em> were you when I was raising yours!”</p><p>“Javier-”</p><p>“No, David.” Javier interrupted him. “I can’t even <em>talk</em> about her either. Neither can Gabe! When we bring her up you look like a fucking pipe-bomb about to blow up! You make Gabe too scared to talk about his own <em>sister</em> in his own home!”</p><p>‘Home.’ David had promised they could make this place a home...but Javier still felt like he had to hold his breath. David, not knowing how to use his words, raised a fist to his brother. But Javier had learned, he had grown up. He stepped back and caught David’s forearm in his hands. They stood there, eyes locked and hardened, before David loosened and pulled away. It was then that both noticed the silent dining hall and dozens of eyes watching.</p><p>“Show’s over!” David barked out, then leaving the Church all together. It was then a great rustling of people turning back to their food and murmuring began.</p><p>Javier took a deep, settling breath and looked back over to his nephew. “Gabe-” he came a bit closer, but the boy cut him off.</p><p>“God <em>damn it,</em> Javi.” Gabe picked up his bowl and angled his head down, partially hiding his blush. He walked off and away with his bowl, finding somewhere else to sit; whether with friends or alone.</p><p>Javier, with nowhere else to go, sat back down and finished his meal quickly, ignoring the stares and glances directed towards him.</p>
<hr/><p>Nearly after everyone else, Javier left the church. He didn’t know where else to go, but he knew he didn’t want to go home. Though he knew David wouldn’t be there, probably ran off somewhere unknown again.</p><p>He came down the grand stone steps of the building, where he then spotted Luke doing the same. Though, his friend was slower due to his cane, and balancing something wrapped in a napkin in his other hand.</p><p>“Hey,” Javier came up behind and scratched the side of his head. He felt embarrassed by the scene he caused, and his own outburst. At least David kept his private, but Javier’s fuck-ups were always for the world to know.</p><p>“Howdy.” Luke paused to look behind at Javier, but then got to the bottom before speaking again. “So...the soup was good.” Luke didn’t want to pester Javier so soon. Though Javier could think fast in a pinch, he knew his friend preferred to marinate and absorb a situation before talking, if given the luxury.</p><p>Javier laughed. “Told you it would be. <em>Mamá</em> knew best.” He got to the bottom of the stairs as well and stood next to Luke on the cobblestone. “I know we don’t do leftovers, so what’s in the napkin?”</p><p>“Oh,” Luke looked back down, he had wrapped a few pieces of gristle and scrap chicken parts that he thought they could spare, though it wasn’t much. “Nevermind that, wanna see something cool?”</p><p>Javier raised an eyebrow, “What is it?”</p><p>“Nah, nah, it’s a surprise.” Luke grinned, he started walking off towards his home once again. “C’mon.”</p><p>“Uh. Okay, then.” Javier followed, he didn’t have much else to do and a distraction would be welcome. He walked beside Luke through the streets, matching his friend’s pace not to outwalk him. </p><p>Soon enough they approached a townhouse unit: the old kind built sometime in the 1800s. Built to last, and that’s why they were still standing. Being built before central heating also made the place easier to keep warm. Javier had seen the outside before, but he wasn’t sure which was Luke’s before Luke approached his porch and set the scraps down on a step. Javier raised an eyebrow and stepped forward as well. “What are-”</p><p>“Shhh!” Luke put a finger to some slightly smiled lips, he put a hand on Javi’s chest and pushed him back a bit, until they stood on the other side of the street. “Just wait.”</p><p>They sat down on the porch across the street, and following Luke’s instructions they waited quietly. After a few minutes, Javier saw it. A small, fuzzy creature stepped out from under the porch and started eating the scraps.</p><p>“Holy shit.” Javier smiled as well, “Is that a cat?”</p><p>“Yup.” Luke nodded, his elbows on his knees and hands on the sides of his face, just watching the kitten eat. “Found the thing this morning. It’s scrawny as all hell, so I brought some scraps.”</p><p>“It’s cute.” Javier said. “You gonna keep it?” Javier asked.</p><p>“If it sticks around.” Luke shrugged. “My family had barn cats, so I know a job for the lil’ fellow. It’d be nice to get the rats outta the greenhouses.”</p><p>“Smart.” Javier nodded. They sat quietly and watched it eat for a few more seconds, then Javier chuckled at an old memory. “Where I grew up there used to be street cats roaming around the neighborhood. <em>Mamá</em> was allergic and would scold me for playing with them.” Javier glanced over to Luke. “But I still did.”</p><p>Luke nodded, “Who could resist?”</p><p>They sat together on the porch for a while longer, but eventually the kitten slunk off back under the house. Once gone, Luke stood up with his cane and walked up to his own door. Javier followed a few steps, but then stood stranded and unsure in the middle of the street. Unlocking the door, Luke turned his head back and saw him standing there, and he could tell he didn’t have anywhere to go. “You comin’ in or what?” Luke invited him.</p><p>“Oh. Sure.” Javier followed into the house behind.</p><p>Javier stepped over the threshold, and stood just inside the doorway to look around. Luke went off into another room for the moment, the kitchen perhaps?</p><p>It was...nice. Unlike David’s house, or the apartments of other survivors he had been too, it looked...homey? Not like a shell to crawl into for safety at night, but somewhere to live. There were paintings and drawings near the mantle place and on the table, a guitar left on the couch with scribbles of chords. Curtains were not left tattered and astray, things looked put into their right place, without being sterilizing clean. It seemed comfortable, and so much like Luke.</p><p>In another corner, there was a small pile of toys on a chest. Oh, right. There was a time in which AJ lived here with him. </p><p>Luke came back into the living room, his cane was left leaning against a wall and in his hands were two glasses of brown liquid. He looked over at Javier, “Still waiting to be invited in? What are you? Dracula?”</p><p>Javier exhaled through his nose in an amused manner, and stepped further in. It was then Luke handed him the glass, and he brought it to his nose to smell. “Whisky?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Luke took a sip. “Nice stuff, too.”</p><p>“Wow, damn right.” Javier agreed after a taste. “Where did you find this?”</p><p>“Well,” Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “I may have ‘borrowed’ some things from Joan’s house.” He shrugged.</p><p>Javier laughed, “Well after everything she put us through, she at least owes us a drink.”</p><p>“I’ll cheers to that.”</p><p>Luke raised his glass, and Javier clinked his against it. Luke then picked his guitar up and set it on the coffee table, atop other books and drawings, and sat down on the couch. He propped his bad leg up on the table, and made himself comfortable. Javier followed suit, and sat with one ankle crossed over his knee.</p><p>Luke took another sip of his drink, then leaned back into his spot on the couch. “So. What was that at dinner?”</p><p>“God,” Javier shook his head and laughed at the acknowledgement of the scene he was embarrassed of. “Can we <em>not</em> talk about it?”</p><p>“Oh, we don’t have to. But everyone else will.” Luke teased, but then became more sincere. “But...I think you want to. Or need to, at least.”</p><p>Javier sighed, there was a pause as collected what he wanted to say, but there felt like too much to gather. “David is just… <em>difficult</em> to be around.”</p><p>“Oh, I know. Trust me.” Luke nodded. “Those types just...go off sometimes.” There was a moment he almost felt something squeezing his neck, or a hand on his shoulder. David, well, David reminded Luke a lot of Kenny. His rage, his hair trigger. Luke didn’t like to be around him because of it, and he couldn’t imagine living with him to be splendid. But there was something else in him. A great sadness, one he couldn’t express. One he pressed down and froze, sharpening to a point. It reminded him of Nick at times.</p><p>“Tell me about it. We were just talking and he <em>blew up.”</em> Javier shook his head and took another sip, bigger than the previous. “But I did too, I guess. ‘García men are hotblooded,’ as <em>Papá</em> used to say.” Javier took another sip of his drink, then leaned forward. Now his knees on his elbows and his glass held firmly in both hands. His thumb ran back and forth on the glass’s smooth side. He couldn’t stop thinking about how embarrassed Gabe was, how the boy ran away from him after it happened. Javier shouldn’t have brought him into that, or brought more strife to the relationship he was finally cultivating with his father. “I should talk to Gabe.”</p><p>“You <em>need</em> talk to David.” Luke said.</p><p>Javier shook his head and dismissed that, “As if that ever helped.”</p><p>“What? You’re ain’t tellin’ me that y’all’ve been goin’ at it like cats ‘n’ dogs your whole life.”</p><p>“Mmm, not cats and dogs.” Javier tilted his head. “More like two idiots with earmuffs on.”</p><p>“Jesus.” Luke chuckled, “And I thought brothers were meant to get along.”</p><p>“Who’s bright idea was that? They should’ve published the instruction manual.” Javier laughed and looked back over to him. “You have brothers?”</p><p>“Nope. Two sisters, both older. And Clem, of course.” Luke said. “But...there was someone I had close to a brother. Once, a long time ago.” <em>Nick.</em> Luke wanted to redirect the conversation. “I got along with mine fine. Why don’t you two?”</p><p>“Well. That’s a long story.” Javier said, and he might as well start at the beginning. “David is twelve years older than me. I guess he didn’t like not being an only child anymore. Since I was the baby I got a lot more attention. <em>Mamá</em> and <em>Papá</em> didn’t think they could have any more, so I guess it seemed like I was favorited. Hell, maybe I was.” Javier took another drink.</p><p>“He left for the army when I was five or something, so we didn’t really grow up together. When he came home he was always putting me up to these crazy challenges and standards. Expecting me to ‘be a man’ or something, but, Jesus, I was literally just a kid.” Javier shook his head. His brother had always thought low of him, or expected too much of him. David thought Javier was immature or irresponsible, without ever thinking that Javier was just <em>young.</em> That the stupid mistakes he made were ones he needed to learn from as a normal part of growing up, not fucking moral character flaws. “The main thing is he expects me to be the same as him, and I’m never going to be. And he still sees me as the irresponsible kid I used to be, when I haven’t been that in years.” Javier shrugged, and drank again. “But, well, there’s fuckall I can do about that.”</p><p>“Hmm…” Luke nodded, “Well. Sounds like there is a lotta bad blood between you two. You gotta talk to him, and bleed it out. See it the wound can heal over or if it just dies.” Luke said, “And if it can’t get better...maybe you gotta get away.”</p><p>“What?” Javier asked, “Leave New Richmond?”</p><p>“No, no, I’m not saying that.” Luke shook his head. “Just...away from him. There are plenty of other places to live here. This whole block is near empty.” </p><p>“I can’t leave Gabe alone with him.” Javier shook his head.</p><p>“Why?” Luke asked, “...is he…?” He let the accusation dangle in the air.</p><p>“No.” Javier shook his head. “David isn’t abusive. I think I’m the only family he’s ever laid hands on. He’s just...angry. He’s a lot. It’s like living with an attack dog, or a bomb. Can’t say anything without thinking he’ll go off.”</p><p>“...I’m sorry.” Luke said. “...I’ve known someone like that. Can’t imagine havin’ to live with them.”</p><p>“Hey, it’s got nothing to do with you.” Javier shrugged, he sat back up with his spine against the sofa, and took another sip. “Who? Was it family?”</p><p>“No, not my family. But he Clementine’s, maybe…” Luke said. He hadn’t talked about Kenny in years, despite the man still living on his throat. Maybe he was taking the breath from him so he couldn’t utter his name. “He was an old friend of Clementine’s. They got separated, but found each other soon after me ‘n’ her met.” Luke sighed, remembering the tight hug she shared with him and the meal they ate together at that skii lodge. That was a good night; until it wasn’t. “He saw her as a daughter, after his own son died… Tried to take care of her, but she took more care of him… I think- I think he was a good man. Used to be, or tried to be, but the world just...broke ‘em.”</p><p>Luke felt his throat get tight, it was harder to breathe but he powered through it. He’d take back the control from ghosts long past. “He tried to kill me. Got damn near close to it, too. It was goin’ dark, then… Clem saved me. She killed her closest friend for me, and everyday I live tryin’ to make it up to her.” Luke was looking down at his glass, the hands on his neck would burn, but then fade away in the quiet. He was okay. He would be okay.</p><p>Luke looked up and around the house, and pointed to a door next to their fireplace. “That room is meant for her ‘n’ AJ. I picked this house for them, and I try to make it nice, make it a home like they both deserve.” He glanced over at Javier again, sympathetic eyes met his own.</p><p>“They’ll like it.”</p><p>“If they ever get back.” Luke looked away. On the table, there was a drawing of them he had been working on until he realized he didn’t know what AJ would look like now...it had been so long.</p><p>“They will.” Javier tried to assure him. Clem and AJ were Luke’s reasons to keep going, to build New Richmond. He didn’t want his friend to love that.</p><p>“I don’t know...it’s spring now, she was supposed to be back in fall.” Luke sighed, a hand went to his forehead. “It’s just...hard to hold hope.”</p><p>“I know how you feel…” Javier nodded. “But I found David, through all of this. Clementine knows where you are and knows how to survive out there.”</p><p>“Oh, I don’t doubt she’s survivin’.” Luke said, “That girl could make it through a herd with just a hammer and a baby on her hip. I just...don’t know why it’s takin’ her so long. Does she have him? Are they safe? Can she get enough to eat? God, it’s just too much. Sometimes I feel like pullin’ my hair out with worry.” Luke emptied his glass with another sip. “I just wish I went with ‘er…yanno?”</p><p>Javier gave a short hum in understanding, and they sat in the quiet for a moment, Luke looked in his empty cup, and he glanced over to see Javier’s near finished as well. He only poured a bit each for moderation, but damn it that wasn’t enough. He held out his hand, “I’ll top us off.”</p><p>Javier handed his glass over, and watched as Luke went back to the kitchen to refill their cups. Once gone, Javier looked around the setting more. He saw the guitar on the coffee table. Maybe he should ask to borrow it sometime: in the van they spent many nights around a campfire making music together. From the guitar, his eyes wandered off to the art around the coffee table and mantle. He saw the paint cup and dinner-plate pallet, and charcoal etchings on paper. He remembered Luke saying he went to art school, and it seemed he was refining his talents.</p><p>Many of the stretches were of places, objects, buildings, but there were usually people somewhere in the drawing. Far off, or distant. He saw a drawing of Clementine and AJ near a truck, but the boy’s face was unfinished. In the truck there were two figures embraced, a man and a woman. Was that Luke and the woman he mentioned once before?</p><p>Javier, being interested, combed through some more of the sketches on the table. Done in pen, pencil, or charcoal, each felt unique, but haphazard. Like it needed to be put down before it was forgotten. One drawing was a cabin in a pine forest, a whole ensemble of people distant in the window, faces obscured or vague. Except one man’s, one in a baseball cap.</p><p>Javier saw that man again in another sketch, in which he was the focus. For a second Javier thought it was Luke, but after looking closer it wasn’t. The man was looking off in the distance, his expression tired and sad. His facial hair overgrown, his hat pulled down over his eyes and his body hunched over onto his knees. It was eerie, in a way, but it also felt like it held much left to be said. The weight of the pencil held secrets, and regrets. Javier couldn’t help but look in detail.</p><p>Luke came back into the room, “Whatcha got there?” Luke then saw the drawing in his hands. “Oh.” That drawing wasn’t meant for anyone but himself.</p><p>“Who is this?” Javier asked.</p><p>“Someone I lost a long time ago.” Luke sat down on the couch and handed Javier his glass, which caused the man to put the picture down and look at more.</p><p>“Ah,” Javier nodded. “You draw a lot.”</p><p>“Helps pass the time.” Luke shrugged.</p><p>“You’re quite good.” Javier nodded, he was impressed.</p><p>“Well I know that. Art school, remember?” Luke said, he took another drink as well.</p><p>Javier looked up the drawings on the mantle, those were more of faces. Groups of people. He recognized some New Richmond members in one. “Who are these portraits of? If you don’t mind me asking.”</p><p>Luke leaned back on the couch to look at the portraits, the sun cast on them in it’s dying golden glory. “A bunch of dead people, mostly.” Luke sighed. “I only really have memories left to remember them by, and I don’t want to forget their faces.”</p><p>“I get that.” Javier was thankful for the polaroid snaps he had of Mariana and Kate, even if it took going to the memorial wall to see them. Looking up at the mantle, he saw the man from the sketch again, this time with an older man and woman. Javier glanced back at the sketch again, then back to the painting. It seemed they were close, and looking back at Luke he could see the man was staring at that portrait with a sense of longing and regret.</p><p>“That’s the same guy, right?” Javier asked, gesturing to the sketch. Luke nodded. “...Who was he?”</p><p>“Someone important.” Luke looked back down at his glass and took a sip. His heart always held the weight of losing Nick, though it had become strong enough to carry it.  “We grew up together. I never had a brother, but Nick was close to that...in some ways he was more.” Luke went quiet again. He looked to Javier, and questioned if he could say it. Say what he held for so long a secret. If Javier could ever understand. “There was- there was always this part of him he forced back. Sumthin’ inside him. Sumthin’ he was never able to say, and I feel like I can’t say it now because I was the only person who knew that part of him. And even though he’s gone, and so is everyone we knew, I feel like I should still hide it…” Luke sighed, “I don’t know why I’m hiding anymore.”</p><p>A quiet came between them. One that Javier felt was dawning, and intimate. But to Luke, it felt nearly threatening, and embarrassing.</p><p>“Sorry for saying that, nevermind it.” Luke cleared his throat. “I didn’t think you’d understand.”</p><p>“No. I think I do understand.” Javier nodded, his eyebrows gently pulled together in recognition. He knew what Luke meant, in as little words as he used. “I really do.”</p><p>“...you do?” Luke’s voice was soft, but it wasn’t quiet. It was wary and welcoming. He had longed for this kind of understanding for so long.</p><p>Javier nodded. There was another pause as he adjusted himself in his seat, and gripped the glass a little more intently. “Remember that I used to play baseball?”</p><p>“Yes?” Luke didn’t get how this connected at all.</p><p>“I was my team’s best batter. And, well, let’s just say I swung my bat both ways.” There’s a tense but comforting pause between them, as realization comes to Luke in a familiar and intimate comfort. He loosens slightly, which makes Javier partial to once again using humor to lighten the mood, but hopefully his audience now would be more receptive than in the dining hall. “And I know how to work one pretty well.”</p><p>After a second of shocked realization, Luke started to laugh. Hard. And Javier did too. Both from the joke itself and relief it was well received, and by someone who understood. This part of themselves they hid could be seen. “Dear <em>Lord.”</em> Luke laughed and wiped the tear from laughing so hard out from under his eye. “I did <em>not</em> know where you were goin’ with that.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Javier chuckled, “Just trying to lighten the mood.”</p><p>“It worked,” Luke chuckled again, now calm enough to take another amused sip. “What tipped you off? How did you know?”</p><p>“Ah, well, who’s to say? Between the art school and the long hair,” Javier shrugged and weighed his hands like a faux scale. To be honest, he had inklings before, but he was never sure. He didn’t say anything until just now, because he didn’t want to be <em>wrong.</em> “Honestly, I wasn’t sure before. It just never came up.”</p><p>Luke chuckled at the light ribbing, “Well. Call me stupid, but I never thought that you were...yanno.”</p><p>“Bi?” Javier leaned back in his chair.</p><p>“Yes.” Luke nodded.</p><p>“Yeah, well...it’s not like I’m out to my family.” Javier said, there was a brief brusque sigh from the back of his throat. “You know, between the dead raising up, a strict Catholic upbringing, and just <em>David</em> in general, there was never really a <em>good</em> time to tell the family about my sex life.” </p><p>Javier knew who he was from a very young age. He remembered being a kid just hitting puberty, watching his teammates and other ball players with such interest, getting hot and excited in dog piles or horse play. Then when he discovered girls, god he was such a mess. Beautiful people everywhere he looked, he became a flirt to survive, and once he hit the big leagues: a regular Casanova. He hid parts of himself from his family and his bosses, yes, but in the nightclubs he went to during tours and with similarly secreted teammates in the private corners of locker rooms he was allowed that side of himself. He didn’t want to hide it forever, he knew he couldn’t manage that. He had told himself once his baseball career was over and his parents laid to rest he could risk it. He was a fan of risks. Afterall, that’s what ended his career early. Then <em>Papá</em> got sick, and the world ended, and it was then he had risks every day.</p><p>Kate knew. He told her one night, when they were tired but too scared to sleep, desperately wanting a distraction. They played a question game, she asked what he didn’t miss of the old world, and he told her “hiding.” Kate knew, and she accepted him. That made him love her even more.</p><p>“I get that.” Luke nodded. “Born and bred Presbytirians. I thought I was just gonna leave it in my college days behind me, but, well, it follows ya.”</p><p>“It sure does.” Javier nodded. He looked over to the drawing of Nick once more, and he understood the slump in his shoulders and tired look in his eyes. That man was hiding from himself, and that kills you more than death. “Hey, what are you going to draw next?”</p><p>“What?” Luke asked. “I don’t really plan that. I just draw.”</p><p>“Well, being surrounded by the faces of dead people feels a bit <em>morbid.”</em> Javier shrugged, and brought a joking hand up to present his jaw. “How about painting something more pretty?” Javier raised a flirtatious brow.</p><p>Luke chuckled. “I probably could. If I ever found the right model.”</p>
<hr/><p>Javier returned home that night, the drinks and conversation he shared with Luke left him somewhere between buzzed and numb. Like the edges were rounded off just enough to attempt going anywhere near David right now, but still sharp enough to think clearly. </p><p>He turned down the alley to David’s house, and stopped his steps for just a moment seeing his brother on the porch. Was waiting for him? Javier would meet the challenge. One foot in front of the other, he came to his brother. He stood on the street, and saw David pace back and forth on the porch above, avoiding glancing at him. But once he did, he spoke.</p><p>“Javier.”</p><p>“David.”</p><p>The brothers acknowledged each other. Not knowing what to say, David instead sat down on the steps, Javier now looking down rather than up to meet his gaze. Though, David was avoiding that. He didn’t know how to apologize.</p><p>The silence became overbearing, just as their relationship was. “Why are you so <em>angry,</em> David?” Javier asked. His voice was tired, it wasn’t an insult, just a question. </p><p>“I. I don’t know.” David ran a hand up from the nape of his neck to the back of his hair. “I don’t know.” He shook his head.</p><p>Javier sighed, his hand raised up to pinch his nose bridge between his eyes. “We can’t keep living like this. Hell, we found each other after all these years, through everything, and it’s still the same. It’s <em>worse.”</em></p><p>David shook his head. For a second, he looked up at the sky. “Sometimes I think about <em>Mamá</em> and <em>Papá</em> watching us from up there. Spending their days in heaven watching their sons tear each other apart in hell.”</p><p>Javier looked up as well, but he didn’t even feel the comfort of their disappointment.</p><p>“I don’t want to live like this anymore…” David admitted. There was a vulnerability in him Javier hadn’t seen since that night in the rain. Since ever before. “But...I don’t know how to change. I tried, Javi, but…”</p><p>“But you didn’t.” Javier said. “I did. I know you refuse to see it, but I’m not the same person I used to be.”</p><p>“Maybe...I hope you're right, Javi.” David said. “But like Pa always said, ‘Hope in one hand, shit in the other…’”</p><p>"’See which fills up first.’" Javier finished the quote, and a tired chuckle came from the both of them. Javier looked back at his brother. “Right now, it feels like shit is outweighing the hope.”</p><p>“It does.” David said. “I want to fix that. But I can’t. Not like I’ve been trying to.”</p><p>“Then we need to find a better way to be around each other.” Javier came forward, and sat on the porch next to his brother. Both side by side, and seeing the same street ahead of them. “Let’s talk.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>that's the chapter! the kitten is another cameo of one of my pets, this one a little cat we got in october. we still haven't really picked out a name but rn it's looking like it will be "maeby."</p><p>did everyone seem in-character? <em>please</em> let me know i feel like i'm losing my touch.</p><p>also, the thing about kate knowing javier is bisexual was directly inspired by the fic "and hear no lies" by ballpoint_banana. it's a pretty good one-shot and honestly one of my fav twdg fics.</p><p>well, see you in the new year in the new chapter in the war!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Hold Your Every Breath</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey 😬😬</p><p>so school got ahead of me, sorry it's been a month and a half since uploading. i still plan to finish this before june, though, so let's hope i get better at keeping up with homework! i've got detailed, scene-by-scene plans for the next two chapters after this, so hopefully i can crack those out faster than this!</p><p>this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but that's because it's mostly a set up. you'll see what i mean hahaha ;)</p><p>BTW during the second scene i listened to "down the line" by jose gonzalez. just in case you want to see the vibe i was going for</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Headin’ out soon?”</p><p>Javier finished buckling the strap on the back of his horse and turned around to face the familiar voice of his friend, Luke. “Yeah,” Javier patted the rump of the stallion behind him, “Just waiting for Conrad and Jesus and we’ll be going.”</p><p>The three men were going on a diplomatic mission of sorts for New Richmond. With summer now in swing and the coup a year gone by, New Richmond was still rebuilding their bridges with other neighboring communities, and this was a big step. In Charlottesville, there was going to be a meeting involving representatives of all the central Virginia communities that could come. </p><p>Conrad, being the head of diplomatic outreach after Joan, picked Javier to be by his side to represent the community. It was a big deal, and Javier was glad he was becoming more of a figurehead in their community. He stepped up, he was leading. He was keeping the promise he made that night in the garden to Luke, Kate, and himself.</p><p>“Sounds good,” Luke held out a hand which Javier accepted, and both men pulled each other in for a short bro-hug. “You won’t cause too much trouble for us up there, will ya’?”</p><p>“Ah, I’ll try not too.” Javier crossed his arms and leaned more comfortably backward, “But trouble tends to come to me first.”</p><p>“That’s because you try so damn hard to attract it.” Luke took a step back.</p><p>“Well I hope that’s not the only thing I attract.” Javier chuckled and raised an eyebrow, and got a playful nudge from Luke’s elbow in return.</p><p>It had nearly been a year since they met now. Nearly a year since their whole worlds went to shit again, and nearly a year since they started to rebuild. Javier didn’t have Kate anymore, and he could never replace her, but he found Luke had begun to fill the role she had left behind. Someone he could be honest about himself with, and joke with, relax with, and someone who understood him. And Luke, well, he felt much the same way.</p><p>Luke came closer to the animal, and he brushed a hand down across it’s neck. “A blue roan stallion? Damn this is a fine beast.” As he brushed his hand down, he then came to see the Kingdom’s <em>K</em> symbol branded onto the animal’s neck. A twinge of pain and sympathy came to Luke, but he let it pass. Old scars didn’t hurt as they once did, but the flesh remained tender.</p><p>“A what?” Javier raised an eyebrow, this time more confused than flirtatious.</p><p>“The horse. It’s a blue roan.” Luke repeated himself.</p><p>Javier looked back at the animal and then at Luke. “But it’s grey?”</p><p>Luke started laughing, and Javier followed suit, though not really knowing why.</p><p>“Uncle Javi! Luke!” </p><p>Both men turned to see Gabriel running down the town square to them, pausing for a second with his hands on his knees to catch his breath once in front of them.</p><p>“I thought I missed you and didn’t get to say goodbye.” Gabriel panted and stood back up. He was taller now and not as skinny. He was growing up, on his way to become a man. Javier was proud.</p><p>“Buddy, I’d never leave without saying goodbye to you.” Javier came closer and gave his nephew a hug, which Gabriel thankfully returned with only a little embarrassment.</p><p>“You forgot your bat,” Gabriel produced the weapon from a strap on his back and handed it to Javier, but the man pushed it towards his nephew. “You’ll need it out there.”</p><p>“Oh, right.” Javier took the bat and slung it over his shoulder, then used his other hand to ruffle his nephew’s hair, but succeeded instead in disturbing his orange beanie’s placement on his head. “Thanks a million, Gabe.”</p><p>“You’re welcome a million, Uncle Javi.” Gabe smiled, fixing his hat without complaint. “You’ll be back soon, right?”</p><p>“By next week, if everything goes right.” Javier said, but that seemed to make Gabriel worried once again. Even though the teen’s life had changed drastically in the last year, he still hadn’t gone without seeing his uncle every day since everything went down. He spent the past seven years with his uncle, and Javier felt the same anxiety leaving him behind.</p><p>“Kid, don’t worry,” Luke came forward and stood side-by-side with Gabe, putting a friendly hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure your uncle knows how to behave himself and charm the asses off everyone there.” Luke gave a sly look to his friend.</p><p>“Charm I’ve got plenty of, good behavior can be bribed.” Javier raised his eyebrows.</p><p>“Uncle Javi,” Gabe whined, almost begged.</p><p>“Ah, come on, Gabriel. I can handle myself.” He tried to reassure his nephew once again.</p><p>“You better.” The boy added.</p><p>Up from the other side of the courtyard came Conrad and Eleanor escorting a chestnut mare, signaling once again that the time to leave was imminent. Luke saw, and nudged Gabriel’s calf with his cane gently to signal it’s time for them to part as well. “Well, kid, it looks like it’s time for your uncle to head out. See me in the gardens once he’s gone, you’ve got work to do.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah.” Gabriel almost rolled his eyes, but thought better of it. He, like all the other young people, had chores in the gardens everyday. This ended up making him close with Luke, in some ways, since they spend a lot of time together. Luke had plenty of experience with young teens from his time with Clementine, and Gabe liked the way Luke treated him with casual respect. The boy tried to return it just the same.</p><p>“Come on. Javier is going to come back in one piece.” Luke made eye contact with the man in question. “Do you promise to come back in one piece, Javi?”</p><p>“I’ll try my best.” Javier said, but after a mock-threatening gesture with his cane, Luke got a better promise from him. “Yeah. I’ll be fine kid, just you wait.”</p><p>“Good…” Gabriel nodded, before lunging forward and hugging Javier forcefully once again. The former baseball star looked surprised for a second, and looked at Luke with confusion, before both shrugged and he returned the hug to his nephew. When the boy pulled away, he walked off quickly without another word and a small blush on his face.</p><p>“I’ll keep my eye on him while you’re gone.” Luke promised. “Just...be careful man, okay?” Javier could see Luke trusted him, but that there was still concern in his brown eyes. <em>Dios mio...those eyes.</em></p><p>“Thank you. And I will. I’m quite the careful guy.”</p><p>Luke rolled his eyes. <em>”Pfff.</em> Alright.”</p><p>Javi chuckled. “Sorry. But seriously, I’ll be okay.”</p><p>Luke smiled at that. “See you Sunday.”</p><p>With that, the council man walked off with a wave. Javier watched the man leave, and as he did he was distracted from the figure appearing by his side. Until said figure spoke.</p><p>“Hi, Javi. <em>Javier.”</em> Eleanor seemed to correct herself of the familiarity she greeted this man with. They had not spoken in a year, and the last time they had was not on good terms. They had spent their time rebuilding Richmond in different sections, not seeing one another. He couldn’t forgive her betrayal, she couldn’t forgive his. He couldn’t forgive what role he had to play in Tripp’s death, and she couldn’t forgive herself.</p><p>“Eleanor.” Javier took a step back and crossed his arms, bat hanging in his hands down by his leg. His expression was closed off, but not quite angry. Annoyed with her presence, her existence.</p><p>Eleanor sighed, and slumped her shoulders just a bit before picking them back up. She crossed her arms as well. “Look. I know we’re not <em>friends,</em> but I wanted to see you off. Good luck out there.” She seemed genuine, but Javier wasn’t ready to accept that.</p><p>“Good luck?” Javier raised an eyebrow, “Thanks.”</p><p>“Yes, good luck.” Eleanor sighed once again. “I know that we haven’t been the <em>most</em> friendly since...since everything happened. I accept the blame in my half, and I’m sorry, but I think it’s time for us to bury the hatchet.” She glanced over to her side, where a few yards away she saw Conrad speaking with Jesus as they prepared their horses. “Conrad is a good friend of mine, and a good friend of Tripp’s. We talked today and...well… They both trusted you a lot. Conrad trusts you again, and, well, I think it’s time for me to do that too. Tripp would have wanted that.”</p><p>“You broke Tripp’s heart, Eleanor.” Javier said; he still hadn’t accepted her full apology. </p><p>“And you broke Kate’s.” Eleanor said. And it stung because Javier knew it was true, and he regretted his words from a moment prior. “And now we’re both here, heartbroken too.” Eleanor added.</p><p>Javier nodded, and he slowly uncrossed his arms. His heart did feel as if it broke from losing Kate and Mariana, but over time it had grown together again. Scars filled the cracks, and so had love. Love for Richmond, his brother, his nephew, what he had built with them. Love for friends. <em>Luke…</em></p><p>“There was something Tripp said to me sometimes.” Eleanor continued, her eyes looking off to the left to remember his voice. “I can’t remember what it was, exactly. But I think it went ‘No harm in saying <em>it.</em> The only real harm's in not saying <em>it</em> when you should…’” Eleanor took a sure breath and forced eye contact back. “So I’m going to say it now. I’m sorry. And I forgive you.”</p><p>“I remember Tripp saying that to me too.” Javier did, but he knew what it was really about. He knew Tripp meant it to be for Eleanor, for Javier to say it to Kate. He knew it was about hesitation and love, but what is forgiveness if not another form of love. “I’m sorry.” He put a hand out for her to shake. “Let’s put it behind us. Everyone else has, right.”</p><p>Eleanor smiled, “Right.” She shook his hand. The two stood looking at one another for a moment, before they heard a familiar voice call to them.</p><p>“Hey! Javi!” Jesus called out as he clopped forward on his horse. “We’re heading out now, get on.” </p><p>“Right.” Javier broke the handshake. Eleanor waved goodbye, and stepped away as Javier got on his horse. </p><p>With the rest of Richmond behind him and the whole road ahead, Javier went forward without looking back. He didn’t need to. He knew that home, the one he built, would still be there when he got back.</p>
<hr/><p>It was hours later down the road, and Javier spent the fleeting light of the golden hour enjoying the beautiful early-summer weather and sunset. Ahead of him, Conrad and Jesus had been talking about their plans for the summit, and Javier had been listening to get the rundown on what he had to do once again.</p><p>Jesus wasn’t the only member of Kingdom to be summoned, but he had come later in order to escort the Richmond envoys, since Richmond still did not have horses. Conrad was planning to keep his head down, mostly, and apologize for Joan’s actions. Richmond was close to self-sufficiency, and after what Joan had done, they couldn’t impose themselves by asking for help.</p><p>Jesus and Conrad had finished their conversation a while ago, and the three men had spent the last half hour basking in the warm glow of the fleeting sun and traveling in a line. Conrad was whistling a tune Javier didn’t quite know, and Jesus was looking out into the woods for lurkers. That is, until he let his horse fall back so he was beside Javier.</p><p>“Javier,” Jesus tilted his head.</p><p>“Jesus,” Javier smiled and looked to the man. “Thanks for escorting us, man. It means a bunch.”</p><p>“Glad to,” Jesus nodded, “It’s good to see Richmond changing. And it’s good to see you.”</p><p>Javier grinned, looking over at Jesus. They didn’t start off on a good foot, but they ended on one. They trusted one another, though haven’t seen each other much since the coup last year. “Good to see you too, man.”</p><p>“Gotta say, I’m pleased. When I told you that you could change Richmond, I didn’t know if you would.” Jesus said. He gave Javier that advice soon before he left, after the dust had cleared and bodies laid. He put his trust in Javier, and he, while not surprised, was impressed that Javier carried it.</p><p>“Well, I didn’t do it alone. And I didn’t do it for you either, no offense.” Javier gestured with his hand, letting go of his reign for the moment. “I wanted Gabe to have a home, and for all the people in Richmond not to have to start all over. I wanted to build something, you know?” Javier said, he was speaking to Jesus but his eyes were intent on the road ahead. “I didn’t want Kate’s sacrifice to be for nothing…”</p><p>Jesus nodded somberly. “She was a good woman. She’d be proud.”</p><p>“I hope so.” Javier was tempted to look up, but he knew she wouldn’t be there. Despite his Catholic upbringing; he hadn’t found comfort in religion even when he was young. When he needed to feel her, he looked inward. He looked to his memories of her voice, her smile. Who she was. He smiled, imagining what she would have to say these days. Perhaps a comment on his hair, since it had been so long since she had cut it. Javier thinks he should ask Luke for a hair-tie soon.</p><p>After a pause in remembrance, Javier cleared his throat. “So, how’s life in Kingdom? Fight any dragons, maybe save any damsels?”</p><p>Jesus chuckled. “No damsels for me. I thought I made that clear for you a while back?” There was a little smirk on his face, the same kind that spread over Javier’s face a second later.</p><p>“Right, right. You’re more of a <em>swordsman</em> I hear.”</p><p>Jesus laughed at that. “You could say that.”</p><p>“Hey, any valiant knight should know the skill.” Javi shrugged, he then leaned his body closer to Jesus, causing him to grip onto his saddle with his thighs harder. “Maybe us two should duel sometime.” He winked.</p><p>“Ah, hm hm.” Jesus chuckled and put a hand over his mouth and jaw. “Tempting, Javier, but I gotta tell you: I’ve have myself a boyfriend now.”</p><p>“Oh,” Javier raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise and straightened back onto his horse. “Lucky guy.”</p><p>“I think we’re both the lucky one.” Jesus nodded, he looked off at the road ahead of them, thinking of his boyfriend. He made him feel at home, and that’s something that can be hard to get a hold of. “It’s rare to find someone you connect with, even harder these days. Finding someone who knows you takes time, and we ain’t got a lot of it anymore. Never have, really.”</p><p>“Yeah…” It would be impossible to expect Javier not think of Kate again. He had never been known so completely by someone, and knew her just the same. Yet...yet what they could have been never came to be.</p><p>Jesus sighed softly and sympathetically. He understood the magnitude of Javier’s loss, but because of that he could see the magnitude of what Javier had left to give. Javier was strong, he was kind, and he still had love in his heart reserved not only for Kate, but for someone new. Whether that love was being filled now or was left stored, Jesus didn’t know, but he knew it would be a shameful waste if Javi didn’t get to use it. “You should find someone, Javi. Kate would want that.”</p><p>Javier sighed as well, and grabbed onto the back of his neck. “Funny thing is...I think I have.” Javier looked over to Jesus with a slightly pained expression. These feelings he knew he had, though not blossoming, were budding inside him. They weren’t the strong branches of flowers and trust grown from years of care with Kate, but Javier both feared and anticipated they one day may become that. It scared him to think he could lose someone that important again. It excited him to think he could <em>have</em> someone that important again.</p><p>“I can tell.” Jesus nodded, he thought back to the short time he had spent in Richmond going over the plan with Javier and the council. That one councilman, Luke, seemed close to him. Jesus could see the way they made each other smile, the way they relaxed with one another. Luke was a part of Javier’s home as much as Richmond itself. “Does he know?”</p><p>Javier shook his head. “Don’t think so.” He laughed and shook his head. “I’ve always had a bad habit of falling in love with my best friend.”</p><p>“Don’t we all, brother.” Jesus chuckled, and Javi joined in. Behind them, the sun blinked under the horizon, and the golden light slowly died around them. “You should tell him. Life’s too short to <em>not.”</em></p><p>“I don’t know.” Javi shrugged. “I don’t think I should yet. Someday, but not now.”</p><p>“I get that.” Jesus said, “But don’t let ‘someday’ be too late, alright?”</p><p>Javier nodded, “Agreed.” He wouldn’t repeat the same mistake.</p><p>Time went by. The air became colder and filled with a symphony of roadside crickets. Eventually, the three crossed a junkyard. This place was a bad memory, and a grave.</p><p>Javier stopped his horse, and with somber weight in his limbs he slid off. Ahead of him, Jesus turned around to see, and whistled to Conrad to stop them from going further.</p><p>“Javi?” Jesus called. “What’s goin’ on? There a problem?”</p><p>“No, no, it’s not-” Javi was looking at the rides of the road, trying to find the spot. “It’s not that.”</p><p>He came upon it. That roadside mound of dirt was now covered over in grass and clovers. Wildflowers grew from where her body was laid. <em>Mariana…</em></p><p>Javier approached slowly, and came to kneel beside her grave. His eyes were cast down, looking at the grass growing over her. It was a thick carpet, rooted in and blanketed over her showing that time had passed and she had been reclaimed. The grass secured her, and Javier had some strange feeling that Mari would say it kept her warm.</p><p>His shoulders slumped slightly, and he placed a hand the closest he could find to her heart. <em>“Mari…”</em> Javier took a deep breath, trying to remember her face and her voice and not remember the expression on her face as the bullet went through. He was sad, old devastation coming back in reckoning. Being able to visit Kate’s grave had dulled this pain he held for the woman, but being so far from the girl had prevented the same catharsis.</p><p>Jesus and Conrad looked to one another, confused for a moment, before it clicked. They had heard the story. Everyone in Richmond had. The shootout at the junkyard that had started it all, the García’s child that had been the first life claimed in the conflict. Seeing the unnatural mound, they must have crossed her resting place. Jesus slid off his horse first, and Conrad followed soon after. Both silently approached the regrieving man.</p><p>Jesus put a hand on Javier’s shoulder, and crouched down to meet Javier’s eye level. Javier wasn’t crying, but he could see the grief in his eyes. He wasn’t looking at Jesus, his lip was bit in anger. Whether it was for the man that shot her or his own failure to protect her could never be deciphered without words.</p><p>Conrad came up soon after and looked down at the grave. “Is this...her?” The older man asked. He understood the pain of losing children. He understood the pain of losing someone by the same hands that claimed Francine.</p><p>“Y-Yeah.” Javier cleared his throat. “Mariana. This is where we had to bury her.” His voice was slow, going through memories, and slightly haunted. He remembered cradling her before lowering her body into the grave, apologizing, he remembered placing her walkman into her hands before shoveling the dirt on top. There was no time for a more dignified burial, but he thanked God for the small mercy of her being put down without a struggle. He wouldn’t have survived that.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Jesus tried to give a comforting squeeze. “...What was she like?” Memories lived longer than people, and they lived longer the more they were shared. Jesus thought that with her life being so short, Javier would want more people to remember her.</p><p>Javier’s eyes were still on her grave, but he straightened his posture more. He would stay strong for her, as he always had, even if his presence couldn’t keep her safe anymore. “She was… She was everything. She was young, and smart, and kind, and witty. She was curious, and her smile, man, it was like <em>sunshine.”</em> Javier’s throat let out a half-laugh, weakened but fond. “She loved music. She loved when we got the chance to set up camp and sing songs by the fire. I wanted to teach her to play our guitar one day.” He took another deep breath, his chest felt like it was getting hot with all the multitudes of what he had felt for her, coming in full force.</p><p>“There was <em>so much</em> she wanted to learn. If the world hadn’t ended, god <em>damn</em> she would have made straight As. She loved the stars…” Javier shakily sighed, he couldn’t continue. Not for the moment. There were so many things he had to say, entire lifetimes couldn’t contain his love for that girl. His niece, his little girl, the daughter of his brother he had raised as his own. He had seen her grow holding his hand for most of her short life. She would have blossomed before him, even in this hell, resilient and with so much promise. But now she wouldn’t, and the wildflowers on the grave couldn’t compare to her.</p><p>Conrad and Jesus understood, and when Javier went silent they didn’t push farther. They couldn’t know this pain truly, but they could try to comfort. “She loved the stars?” Conrad asked.</p><p>“Yeah,” Javier nodded, he swallowed roughly. “When we were on the road, we found this book of constellations. She read that thing raw and tattered, she pointed out the constellations whenever she could.” A soft smile came to him, remembering her small, young hand taking his to point out the shapes in the sky. “She made up a few of her own, too.” Javier remembered that night, sitting around and connecting stars with her while Kate and Gabriel slept. She was scared, so he stayed up with her until she fell asleep in his arms and he carried her back into the van. Oh, how he could give <em>anything</em> to tuck her in one more time.</p><p>Jesus nodded, and looked up. “Well. She’s got a good view of them here, Javi.”</p><p>Javier, after a moment, slowly pulled his eyes away from her grave and looked up. Sure enough, above her grave, was an expansive sky of brilliant stars. When you looked up, you couldn’t see the junkyard full of bullet holes or the cracked asphalt roads. Just the stars. Javi smiled. She would have liked that. “...She deserved so much more.” Javier lamented, and promised himself this would be the last he would say for now.</p><p>“She did.” Jesus said, and Conrad slowly nodded in agreement. After a moment of silence, Jesus pat Javier’s back and stood up. “We should get going. Let her rest in peace.”</p><p>Javier stood up, and looked back at her grave. He agreed they needed to go, but he couldn’t help but linger by.</p><p>Jesus whistled the horses over, and glanced at him again. “Let’s visit on the way back. Bring her back something she’ll like.”</p><p>Javier pursed his eyebrows together in thought and regret, and pulled away from her grave and onto a horse. “Yeah...that sounds good.” Javier thought of what to bring her. She didn’t need flowers, so he thought to bring her a chocolate bar, if he could find one. Maybe a guitar so he could play for her again. As he gripped onto the reigns of his stallion, he took one last long look at her grave, and said goodbye. <em>“Adiós, Mari.” Javier tugged the reins of his horse and steered it to face the road before them. The one he never went down with her. <em>”Lo siento, volveré pronto. Lo siento mucho, mi cielito.</em></em></p>
<hr/><p>The men went down the driven path for a few hours more, eventually deciding it was time to stop for the night. Each came off their horse and found their sleeping bags, Javier volunteered for the first watch while Jesus built the fire and Conrad fished out thermoses of soup the kitchen staff had packed for their journey.</p><p>The three men sat around the campfire in relative quiet, all tired and careful not to attract walkers. Some jokes were cracked, some plans and predictions for the summit went over again, but conversation dwelled down into silence again. That is, until they heard it.</p><p>“What the hell is that?” Javier asked. A rumbling, warbling noise off in the distance was heard, getting louder and louder. Like the sound of thunder stretched evenly. The other two men attuned their ears, and looked around their setting and down the road. Not a car, not a creature, nor a storm what was it?</p><p>The sound got louder and louder, near deafening, and around them the leaves in trees began to bend and shake. The three men stood up and grabbed the weapons on hand, unsure how it would help, but with a harsh gust of wind and ear-rattling rumbling they looked up and saw it. A oblong black shape covering the stars, a spinning fan of blades. It passed them by as quickly as it came.</p><p>A helicopter.</p><p>“What in the fuck-” Conrad shouted over the noise.</p><p>“How the hell…!” Jesus was alarmed as well. The men covered their ears and waited for it to pass before trying to speak to one another again.</p><p>“How the fresh <em>fuck</em> is someone flying a damn helicopter?” Conrad shouted in his awe and confusion. It had been years since anyone had seen something unfeathered airborne.</p><p>“That’s not all,” Jesus looked at the men grimley before eyes cast to the woods around them. The helicopter had attracted a herd in its wake, they could see it down the road. Stiff, wretched bodies clambouring out of the woods and after it.</p><p>Javier took a second to think, when suddenly his eyes widened. He looked back up at the helicopter and the road it was going down. “It’s heading towards Richmond!”</p><p>“Oh shit.” Jesus’s eyes became wide as well. He whistled at the horses to stop grazing and ran over to untie them.</p><p>“Goddamn. We need to hurry!” Conrad shouted, putting out the fire. He was right, and the men followed.</p><p>Just before the herd reached them, all three were on their horses and galloping as fast as they could. They knew they couldn’t make it in time, they knew they couldn’t make it to the summit, and they knew they couldn’t stop the herd behind them, but they bolted through the night to the reborn city.</p><p>It was hours before they arrived, the sun beginning to awake behind them and the night of dying stars ahead. With their horses panting and bodies aching, they came upon a hill they came to a precipice of Richmond, the city still at night before them. But the city wasn’t dark.</p><p>Before them, under thousands of stars, Richmond was in flames.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sooooooo yup! cliffhanger folks! you thought this would just be a simple fic about the characters without an overarching plot or action? damn can't believe you doubted me :/</p><p>if you can leave a comment that would mean a LOT to me. y'all have no idea that shit fuels writers, forreal. tell me what you think is gonna happen to Richmond lol</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Our Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>heeyyyyyyyyyy it's happening! here's the battle! this took a while to put together and it still feels like a bit of a mess, so i'll put some more things about what got cut from this chapter in the end notes. enjoy all 19 pages!</p><p>also, i'm trying to get a depop shop off the ground so i thought i should promote here just in case. i've got a lot of plus sized and/or vintage clothing that i'm trying to clear out. i've got a pretty good discount of 3 for 30$, and am trying to get it all gone as fast as i can. if any of y'all are interested my depop is @ameliomina as well. for readers of this fic i'll make it an exclusive offer of 4 for 30! ( https://depop.com/ameliomina/ )</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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  <em>“No- no no no!” A choked sob came from the girl’s exhausted mouth. “Dad!” She rocked back and forth, knees tucked behind sweater-clad arms, her terrified eyes framed in red glasses and her gaze so deep inside herself she couldn’t see the men in front of her.</em>
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  <em>“Sarah!” Luke was crouched down in front of the girl. “Honey- come on! You gotta snap outta this!” Luke tried to coax the girl out of her panic, but was fruitless. Just as he had been for the several hours. </em>
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  <em>“Luke, that’s not going to work.” Nick said. He was standing at the other side of the room, looking out the cracks in the shuttered trailer windows and recounting the ever growing number of lurkers pounding on the shaky walls.</em>
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  <em>“Nick!” Luke snapped, then bit back his tongue. He knew his friend was right, and he knew that he was unravelling himself. He was panicked, just like Sarah, and he knew that yelling at her wouldn’t calm her down. “I- I know.” With one hand, he ran a hand over his exhausted face, the other clutched at his broken ribs.</em>
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  <em>Carlos had mentioned something like this before. These, what did he call it, “meltdowns?” That Sarah would not understand how to move forward and would close into herself, and that the best thing to do if Luke ever saw her have one was get him. That she just needed some time and her dad.</em>
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  <em>But they had neither of those.</em>
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  <em>It had been so fast. They were all covered and guts and walking through the herd, then Howe’s started shooting at them. And then Carlos was gone. Sarah had seen, and she ran screaming into the night, running like a chicken with its head cut off. Nick and Luke had chased her for hours on their own downtrodden feet, dodging lurkers left and right. After hours and in the dawning light of morning, they managed to corral her somewhere inside at least, a trailer. They thought inside would be safer, but now they realized something else. They were completely trapped, and no help had been on the way. Sarah’s screaming and Nick’s last bullets had attracted lurkers, and there was no way out.</em>
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  <em>Nick looked between his friend and the lurkers outside. “One of us needs to make a break for it.” Nick set his jaw. “It’s our only choice.”</em>
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  <em>Luke gulped and his shoulders tensed once again. He looked over at Sarah once more with a sympathetic expression before rising off the floor and coming to the same window as his friend. “It is. But how could we go ‘bout that? We’ve got nothin’ here.” It was true, they had run out of bullets.</em>
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  <em>Nick pointed out the window at a car, “I could get to Parker’s Run, or fucking Howe’s if need be. Find someone, or some more bullets, anything to get out of here.” Nick’s blue eyes met Luke’s brown. Both pensive, both apprehensive, and both scared.</em>
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  <em>“Nick-” Luke said, he didn’t want his friend to leave them. He didn’t know what could happen out there. He couldn’t lose Nick too, and he knew Nick couldn’t lose him either.</em>
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  <em>“Hey. I have to. Sarah isn’t calming down, you're bashed to bits-”</em>
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  <em>“I know that.” Luke said, his voice was stressed and panicked. Somehow, Nick was the level headed one now. “But that’s too risky.”</em>
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  <em>“There’s no easy way out of this.” Nick’s dark eyebrows were furrowed, not at Luke but at their entire situation. “I can make it out of here the easiest. I’m still covered in guts, I’ll just slip right by them.”</em>
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  <em>Luke wasn’t buying it. Nick, without another word, began to walk to the back window, the side with no lurkers banging to be let in. “Nick, c’mon, we can think of something else! We gotta-” He grabbed Nick’s forearm, stopping his friend from opening the window any farther. Stopping him from leaving.</em>
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  <em>Nick paused, he looked at the arm holding onto his tightly and tenderly, begging him to stay. His eyes slowly trailed up to Luke’s eyes, which were begging much the same thing. </em>
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  <em>“Nick.” Luke said once again. Even if Nick would still leave, he wanted a goodbye. He begged for it in his eyes, in his hold. He begged for Nick to reach out and touch him.</em>
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  <em>And Nick did, but only to pull his arm away.</em>
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  <em>“It...it’ll be over soon. Okay?” Nick said, he slid the window up the rest of the way and gripped onto the sill. “Just hold on.”</em>
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  <em>He slipped out, his boots hit the ground, and Luke watched him leave. He listened to Nick’s words, he waited. He sat by a panicked girl, spent hours calming her down, and waited hours more wishing for Nick to come back. And he would spend the rest of his life wishing he had said goodbye.</em>
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<hr/><p>Luke was reminded of it again. A truth about this world he should have remembered, one he should have held so close to his heart that it would always hurt and sting like a piercing shar of ice.</p><p>Things would always go to shit.</p><p>He had gotten comfortable in the last year, by building foundations for New Richmond his feet felt the ground beneath was solid. What he failed to account for was the sky above him, and what shit storms it would rain upon them all.</p><p>That night had started so peacefully. Dinner was served for the community in the church, people went out to the courtyard to play games and watch the sunset. It was another peaceful night, the kind of peace people deserved, the kind they could get within safe walls.</p><p>Luke was sitting on the steps of the church, a sketch pad in hand and fingers smudged in graphite. He was trying to draw this scene, try to capture the peace and community. Maybe his drawing could show the future how they had lived at the beginning of rebuilding. Maybe it would be just for him, another memory of people he would lose.</p><p>That thought came to him not soon after it started.</p><p>The sun had gone down, people of Richmond began to stray away into their own homes, when they all began to hear it. It wasn’t thunder, it was a powerful whirring. It had been so many years since they had heard something airborne that the panic came before recognition. They all looked up, and coming from the distance they saw it.</p><p>A helicopter.</p><p>Confusion ensued immediately after, people ran around telling one another of it, and every second it came closer and closer. The sinking feeling in Luke’s gut was just as immediate. Something bad was about to happen. And he was right.</p><p>The mechanical monster came above the city, at first there was nothing, and then there were the bombs. Grenades, molotovs, and pipe bombs were thrown onto the tops of buildings. Bullets rained down. In the panic and confusion, people screamed, and ran for cover. Luke did as well, he shouted for people to get into basements, and ran for the church with people following him.</p><p>From inside the church basement, they could still hear the chaos from outside. The bullets had ceased, since there were no longer people running through the streets, but the roar of the helicopter closer to the ground was still heard. The building shook when a bomb hit the church’s roof. New Richmond huddled together, they tied off the wounds of those caught too long in the downpour. Luckily, only a few had been shot. It was unknown how many still lay in the streets.</p><p>“Dad? Dad!?” Gabe shouted in the crowded basement, he couldn’t find his father among the crowd.</p><p>“Gabe?” Luke recognized the voice, he made his way through until he found the boy. “Gabe! Thank god you’re okay, kid.” Luke was relieved.</p><p>“Where’s my dad? Have you seen him?” Gabe asked, he was nervous, but held back his shaking. Richmond had become a battlefield again, just as it had when he arrived here, and he couldn’t lose any more family. He knew Javier was nowhere near here, and that he couldn’t help.</p><p>“No, sorry- He didn’t come in with the rest.” Luke looked around the crowd. He needed to get in contact with David: they were under attack, this was what David was preparing for. Luke needed to get everyone safe, and David needed to get his soldiers ready.</p><p>Luke pulled out his walkie-talkie, the ones all council members were given, and tried to get a signal from someone, anyone else. Clint, David, Lingard, <em>anyone.</em> Static. Fuck, he couldn’t get signal in the basement.</p><p>“Is it broken?” The boy asked.</p><p>Luke shook his head. “It shouldn’t be…” He needed to get a better signal... Oh, shit. “The transmitter- shit. Bomb musta got it.” On the roof, Clint had stationed the remote radio signal transmitter so it could go longer distances. But now that it had been hit, they were at a disadvantage. If Luke could fix it...they might have a chance.</p><p>Luke swallowed, and looked at the boy. “Gabe, listen to me, I might need your help.”</p><p>Gabe nodded, he wanted to help. He wanted to prove himself. </p><p>“I gotta get a better signal.” </p><p>Luke and Gabriel made their way up the Church stairs quickly, Luke left his cane on the steps in order to go faster, ignoring the ever-present ache of his incorrectly healed bones. Lives were at stake, he could suffer his old pains. They got to the roof entrance, Gabe put his hands on the handle and Luke stopped him.</p><p>“No, kid, I’m gonna do this. Just make sure nothin’ happens to me.” Luke said.</p><p>“But-” Gabriel almost whined, but instead clenched his jaw. <em>“No.</em> I’m going to help. I’m not going to be useless.” The determination in his eyes was resolute, and Luke yielded. This wasn’t a child’s demand, it was a man’s promise.</p><p>The signal transmitter was found on the ground, but not too badly damaged. The bomb had blown it off it’s position, but it hadn’t directly hit. With Gabriel’s help, the tower was reset in the right place and a voice came through the radio.</p><p>“David, Lingard, Clint; can you hear me?” Luke asked.</p><p><em>“Luke?”</em> David’s voice crackled through. He spoke more, but the transmission crackled too loudly to hear correctly.</p><p>“David!” Luke yelled again. “What’s going on? Who is this?”</p><p><em>”We don’t know!”</em> David yelled, <em>”But this isn’t a random attack. See the bombs? Only the greenhouses, church, and hospital were hit. This was planned.”</em></p><p>Luke looked off at all the buildings lit up by fire in the newly darkened night. David was right. The bombs were strategic, only hitting the rooves that had the greenhouses. It had been a good idea to put them up there, one Luke had way back at Howe’s as well. On rooves, they would get more sunlight and would be protected from stampeding lurkers, but not by airstrikes. No one had ever thought of this. The weight of this attack and the detriment of losing their gardens couldn’t be processed now. For now, they still had to survive.</p><p>“Fuck.” Luke cursed to himself, he then hit the button so David could hear him again. “I gathered everybody I could into the Church basement, Gabe’s here with me. Where are you? What are your men doing?”</p><p><em>”There’s fuck all we can do about the</em> bird, <em>but we’ve rounded up people out of the street.”</em> David said, <em>“I’ve got men heading to the gates, expecting an attack there. With the noise, this was probably meant to lure a herd.”</em></p><p>Again, Luke cursed to himself. This attack, while it had seemed to come out of nowhere to the people of New Richmond, had clearly been carefully conceived.</p><p>Another voice crackled in, one much grainier than David’s. It must be even further, but Luke recognized the sound. It was Conrad.</p><p><em>“Conrad!”</em> David called, he must be able to hear the man much better than Luke could. <em>”Go to the left gate! We’ll be right there.”</em></p><p>Luke tried to reach the men again, but his voice faded too far for them to respond. Looking out once again from the rooftop, he could see Richmond was once again on fire. Now, he only hoped that they could put this out.</p>
<hr/><p>Like much of New Richmond, David had been relaxed before the attack. He was with Ava and his men, shooting’ their shit and talking about pasts and futures. But as he had been trained as a soldier, and much like an attack dog, the sound of bullets and bombs got every fiber of his body ready for battle.</p><p>It was a quick dash to the armoury, ushering anyone they found in the streets indoors, then under any cover as the helicopter came over them and rained down. It wasn’t long before the radio at his hip crackled with Luke’s voice. <em>Gracias a Dios,</em> the thing was working again.</p><p><em>“David!”</em> The voice cracked over. It was Luke’s. <em>“What’s going on? Who is this?”</em></p><p>”We don’t know!” David yelled into the receiver, hoping that the volume would make the transmission clearer. He stopped loading his gun, and the other soldiers in the armory listened to their councilmen talk as they armed themselves. ”But this isn’t a random attack. See the bombs? Only the greenhouses, church, and hospital were hit. This was planned.” It was in David’s bones that this was planned. This had to have been months in the making, to get enough fuel for that thing to fly.</p><p>There was a pause for a moment, whether it was another transmission error or a moment of thought, David didn’t have time to think about it. <em>“I gathered everybody I could into the Church basement, Gabe’s here with me. Where are you? What are your men doing?”</em></p><p>David was relieved that Gabriel was safe, he just hoped his son wasn’t cowering. ”There’s fuck all we can do about the <em> bird,</em> but we’ve rounded up people out of the street.” David said, “I’ve got men heading to the gates, expecting an attack there. With the noise, this was probably meant to lure a herd.”</p><p>There was a pause over the radio again, then a sound. Another crackling, far less decipherable than Luke’s. It took a moment, but then David could recognize the voice. If only he could recognize the words.</p><p>“Conrad!” David yelled into the radio. Why had Conrad returned? The envoy should be on their way to Charlottesville. Unless...they came to warn about something else. “Go to the left gate! We’ll be right there.” With some crackled sound of confirmation, his radio then sputtered out into silence. Shit. He put back to his hip and the gun back in his hand, he loaded the magazine and as soon as it <em>clicked</em> boots were back on the ground heading for the gate.</p>
<hr/><p>Once the three men realized what they were seeing, they thundered their horses forward towards Richmond, running into the line of fire. Conrad, thinking quickly, got out his radio. As they headed battlebound, he tried to contact New Richmond.</p><p>For a long while, silence. Then, just a 300-yard dash from the gates, they got a response. David’s voice, too grainy to understand, but the word “gate” made it through. That was enough.</p><p>It did not take long for the gates to groan and pull themselves open for Javier, Conrad, and Jesus, but the minutes they sat there listening to the gunfire go off and anticipating the herd were too long.</p><p>“David!” Javier jumped off his horse and ran into the walls once more. “What the hell is happening?”</p><p>“Richmond’s under attack.” David answered bluntly, he motioned to the men atop the gate to shut it now that the men and horses were inside.</p><p>Ava pointed the helicopter nearer to the center of town. “That flying shit machine has been dropping bombs on our buildings and shooting down at our people.”</p><p>“Shit,” Conrad said, he looked up at the thing, and now with the light of flames bouncing off the black hull, he could see more details of the aircraft than he could at when it first passed over them. Familiar details… “We saw that thing coming and came right back. There’s a herd following it not far behind..”</p><p>Cursing escaped all their mouths once more.</p><p>“All this noise is meant to attract those fuckers, of course flying it brought along a tail.” David grumbled.</p><p>The gate, now halfway shut behind them, was halted when Jesus whistled up at the men. “We ain’t got much time,” the Kingdom man gripped the reins of his horse. “I’m gonna go to Richmond, rally whoever I can.”</p><p>Javier sighed with a thankful expression on his face. “Jesus- Be careful out there.”</p><p>Jesus, his horse heading out the gate again, turned to give a backwards glance. “Stay alive out there, folks.” He slapped the backside of his horse, and once again he was off. Once again, they hoped he could be their savior.</p><p>The gate shut solidly behind him, and no sooner after it <em>thud</em> against the ground did the helicopter come thundering in the air above them. The helicopter was making its way towards the gate, out of Richmond, and as a final goodbye it dropped it’s final explosives by the gate.</p><p>Everyone ran and ducked. Their ears rung, but luckily no one was too badly injured. The remaining two horses shot off in a panic, no one set out to catch them for the moment, and the men regrouped near the gates once again.</p><p>Despite the sound and the flames, they weren’t too badly damaged. The bomb hit just in front, leaving a small crater and a ring of fire in the road, but on the gates themselves. Within a couple of minutes, they were able to push a dumpster in front of it for extra protection. After a quick moment of panting and trying to access their own damage, a new threat came.</p><p>“David!” A new soldier came running up. He came forward to his councilman, and took a second to breathe. He had clearly sprinted the entire way there.</p><p>“Vinny,” David addressed him, “What happened?”</p><p>The man panted for a second longer, long enough for Ava, Javier, Conrad, and other members present to draw forwards.</p><p>“Once the helicopter left, Clint said we should go down to the river to get water. Put out the flames. And-” he panted again, eyes wide in panic. “The helicopter wasn’t <em>it.</em> They’re coming up the river too.”</p>
<hr/><p>As the sun began to rise it glittered over the rushing water of the James. On a bridge above it gathered the leaders and soldiers of New Richmond as they watched their attackers come upstream with trepidation, exhaustion, and fear.</p><p>It had been a year since New Frontier had imploded on itself, from the ashes rose New Richmond. Would they be able to spring from the ashes again? What did this boat come bearing?</p><p>It was large. Luke didn’t know much about boats, but it was big. It was a real ship, not a little fishing dinghy. It looked like it would almost scrape the bottom of the river, but instead it floated suredly forward. </p><p>Atop an old highway bridge, New Richmond gathered their men and weapons. A barricade was made to keep straggling walkers out, and they waited as the ship arrived with dawn. Those with their guns stood guard, pointing down at the deck, waiting for any sign of attack.</p><p>But what called first was a voice.</p><p>“Richmond!” A megaphone sounded, clear enough for them to hear. The captain, presumably, was standing at the bow with it in hand. Clint, with his binoculars, could make out ten men on deck at least. “So <em>sorry</em> we showed up so early, but I’m sure you got our announcement.”</p><p>The councilmen on the bridge looked at one another, not in confusion but instead grave certainty. This had been coordinated, and this would be getting worse.</p><p>“Hope we didn’t cause too much damage!” The horn blared up, then came silence. “What? Not going to respond? Not going to surrender so easily?”</p><p>Javier, now prompted, shouted down over the edge. His voice carried down enough for them to hear, “Who the <em>hell</em> are you!?”</p><p><em>“Javi-”</em> David’s voice warned. He didn’t want his brother to fuck this up for them. He didn’t want his brother to become a target. “Let us do the talking.” He pushed his brother back further into the bridge, out of view from them.</p><p>“Well. Seems y’all wanna get familiar.” The captain cut off his bullhorn, but from the ship they could see his shoulders shake with a slight chuckle and the men on deck raise their guns. “That’s fine, we can make nice. We don’t have to make this a fight, and we don’t want to kill any more people. All we need is the river, and your city with it. The people can stay too. If they <em>cooperate.”</em></p><p>Ice water ran through Luke’s veins, but for David it was boiling rage. The common denominator was fear, it was felt among all the soldiers and leaders on that bridge. They looked to one another, waiting to see who would speak next.</p><p>“That wasn’t an answer!” Conrad shouted down. He was meant to be the diplomat, afterall.</p><p>“Wasn’t meant to be.” The captain said back. “We’re from a group much bigger and much stronger than yours. And we’re <em>expanding.”</em></p><p>Another pause, “Just know that this can get much worse if y’all don’t cooperate. Now. Will you surrender and come down peacefully, or will there be more bloodshed?”</p><p>“Hell…” Luke muttered under his breath, he looked to Conrad, Clint, and David. Next, he looked over to Javier. And Javier was looking at him. Neither had the answers they needed.</p><p>“We can take them.” David said, trying to convince the other members. “They’re nowhere near the city, if we get to the walls we can secure them, then shoot the boat down from the rivers.”</p><p>“That’s too risky,” Clint countered. “Richmond won’t survive what happened last year again.”</p><p>“Richmond won’t survive <em>at all</em> if we surrender.” David growled.</p><p>“Conrad,” Luke looked to their diplomat, “Do you have any idea where these guys are from?” Perhaps he could have some answers, some guidance.</p><p>“No, no I don’t.” Conrad only knew the nearby settlements, and whispers from passing survivors. He had no contact with further settlements, something he was meant to get in Charlottesville. “But…” The man touched his face, puzzling something together. The helicopter…</p><p>“They say they want the river and came from downstream. They’ve got a boat.” Clint said, “It’s got to be Chesapeake.” Joan had known people there, perhaps if she was still around they could get out of this.</p><p>“Does it matter who they are?!” David shouted, “We just have to <em>end</em> this before it gets worse.”</p><p>“David, don’t do anything rash.” Luke held a hand up. “They want the city, they ain’t gonna blow down our walls-”</p><p>“But they blew up our greenhouses, and they sure as shit brought a herd to our doorstep!”</p><p>“They’re trying to intimidate us,” Javier joined in. “That’s what this has all been.”</p><p>The coucilmen turned to Javier. They had trusted him in the coup, could his thinking get them out of this now?</p><p>“Yeah, my point.” Luke nodded. “What do you think we can do here?”</p><p>Before Javier could answer, the megaphone sounded again. “Tick tock. We’re getting impatient. And, well… bad things happen when we get impatient.”</p><p>“Clint, the generator-” A soldier pointed down at the river. From the ship came a smaller lifeboat, then converged onto the half-built electric turbine. Gunshots rang out, holes had been blown through it.</p><p><em>“Shit.”</em> Clint cursed. Months of work was ruined, but at least they hadn’t been reliant on it yet. No one else had gotten hurt. Yet.</p><p>“Oh no…” Luke looked down in worry as well. If they survived this, rebuilding would be difficult.</p><p>Javier grit his teeth and spoke again. “David’s right. We can fight this.” He came closer to the edge and pointed at the boat, “See that thing? It’s big, yes, but that’s also it’s problem. It can’t move like the helicopter, and those guys will need to come out to get anywhere close to Richmond. They can’t take it with them.”</p><p>“Exactly,” David nodded. He looked down at the boat, making a mental tally of visible soldiers and lifeboats. “If we get soldiers lined up at the banks, we can take out anyone who swims up.”</p><p>“Yeah...yeah that sounds like it could work.” Conrad nodded. “But how do we know they ain’t coming by land too? They got a helicopter working.”</p><p>“They aren’t,” David said, “They brought the herd. They’re trying to squeeze us out.”</p><p>Luke looked out at the ship, puzzled as he watched men bring up something from below deck. “Guys, what is that?”</p><p>The megaphone sounded again. “We got tired of waiting. If y’all can’t surrender on the count of three, we’ll take your answer. One.”</p><p>Luke recognized what they were. Catapults. “Oh, shit-”</p><p>“Two.” Guns were raised, grenade pins pulled. Still, no response from New Richmond.</p><p>“Fuck you!” David yelled out, he wouldn’t be the first to get shot at. He took his gun and shot down at the ship, the rest of his men followed suit.</p><p>There was no count of three.</p><p>Bullets rained up and down, blood and shouts spattered, and in seconds the grenades and smoke bombs hit the bridge. There was one second, one terrifying second before they went off.</p><p>One landed at Luke’s feet, he stepped, almost fell backward, life flashing before his eyes. In one second, he felt his arm wrenched out of the way, saw the grenade kicked up and away, and heard the sound of his body hitting the concrete. On top of him was a body, broad and heavy, covering him as best it could. They tensed together until they felt the bridge shake and heard the grenade go off. Smoke and heat came to their lungs.</p><p>“Luke!” Javier shouted, he got off of Luke and grabbed his arm once again. His cheek was scratched, from pavement or debris he didn’t know. He pulled his friend up and held him by his hand as they began to run.</p><p>“Javi?!” Luke shouted. “Looking around, all he saw was smoke and people shouting and shooting, blood and wounds seeping off their skin.</p><p>“Everyone, fall back!” David yelled. Red began staining the fabric of his shirt. He was shot on the left side of his lower abdomen. A hand held over where blood was seeping rapidly into his shirt. Ava held him up with one arm and waved the men back with the other.</p><p>And so, they did. As fast as any could run, with the wounded, blinded, and coughing on their shoulders, New Richmond retreated. But they had not surrendered. Now, they had accepted the invitation of war.</p>
<hr/><p>Running with their wounded on their shoulders and in their arms, those that stood at the bridge made it inside with none dead yet. Quickly, all were rounded up to the Church. Those that were unhurt and armed were sent back out to the river banks, ordered by a rapidly bleeding David to shoot anyone trying to cross on sight.</p><p>With the hospital damaged, all wounded were set in the Church being bandaged up by anyone who could, the medical supplies that had been carefully rationed now being put to use. There were a few gunshot wounds, but mostly scrapes and head trauma.</p><p>David seemed to be the worst of all. Once at the church, Ava let him go and he lay down on the cot. Eleanor came over, snapping gloves on, and removed his shirt. “It’s a clean shot, went straight through.”</p><p><em>“Fuck.”</em> David grimaced at the touch, and he began to feel lightheaded. Blood soaked down from his bullet hole, even after she had wiped it away.</p><p>“Dad!” Gabriel rushed over to his father, “Oh my God!” Memories flashed into his head of when Kate was shot, he didn’t want to be as useless as he was then. “What can I do to help?”</p><p>“Get me a towel,” Eleanor pointed to the stack on another table. The boy quickly rushed over to get it.”</p><p>“David! Holy shit-” Javier came over, he hadn’t seen that his brother had been shot.</p><p>“I’ll be <em>fine.”</em> David said, “Eleanor will patch me up-”</p><p>“I’ll try, David.” Eleanor nodded with certainty, taking the towel Gabe had handed her. With precision, she soaked a corner in antiseptic and pressed into the bullet holes, then pushed on his back to lay him back on the table, slowing down the bleeding. “The blood doesn’t look like it’s from your arteries, it must have missed-” Eleanor said, panicked but relieved, “But you <em>need</em> a transfusion.” She looked to the other two García men. “What’s his type? Do either of you match?!”</p><p>“Shit, uh-” Javier couldn’t recall. In this crazy fucked up world, when had he ever thought about his blood type?</p><p>“I’m AB positive,” David winced.</p><p>“Good,” Eleanor almost sighed. She folded the towel over his wound and pressed down. “Gabe, hold this for me.”</p><p>The boy put pressure down on his father’s blood-soaked bandage, trying to slow the bleeding as Eleanor ran off to get the emergency transfusion equipment. He was panicked, but did his best to hold steady. He couldn’t lose his father too, he couldn’t be the same kid he was last year. “Dad-”</p><p>“Gabe,” David groaned, “I’m gonna make it.” He reassured his son, in a tone almost cocksure and annoyed at the assumption he could be killed. He looked over to Ava and his brother and spoke. “You two will have to take over. Ava: you lead the soldiers. Javi: work with Kingdom when they get here. Handle the boat, handle the herd. Keep Richmond secure.” David groaned again, he was beginning to feel light headed. The blood flow had slowed with the pressure and bandage, but dark red blood was still leaking out onto the table and dripping to the floor.</p><p>“Roger.” Ava gave a sure nod and clenched her fist in a fashion similar to a handshake or salute, and immediately went off to give orders. </p><p>“Will do.” Javier drew his eyebrows together, he was concerned for his brother, he couldn’t leave his side yet. He lost <em>Papá,</em> he lost <em>Mamá,</em> and he lost Kate and Mari. He couldn’t lose David, not so soon. Not when they finally, <em>finally,</em> were beginning to  understand one another. </p><p>Eleanor came back tourniquet and needle tubing in hand. “Who’s our donor?” She asked. As soon as she did, Javier began rolling up his sleeve and offered her his arm. It was fast, it was wordless, but once again Javier proved his devotion to his family, and proved David’s old assumptions of him wrong. Blood shared.</p><p>Eleanor stitched David up, so that Javier’s blood wouldn’t be wasted so quickly. His bandage was fastened neater, and Lingard came to David’s side after stitching up others that were wounded. David had saved his life countless times, even in ways the man didn’t know. He would do everything he could to make sure David made it out of this alive, even with his shaking hands.</p><p>Eventually, David and the others were stable. He was bandaged up and set on a cot, passed out from blood loss and Lingard’s painkillers. Gabe stayed with him, Javier helped the others. As noon finally rolled around, the herd was at their walls. For now, it was not the dominant threat. Their walls would hold against the threat they were built for. </p><p>At noon, Jesus and the Kingdom soldiers had arrived atop their horses, smeared in blood and coated in armor, and ready to strategize and fight.</p><p>“There’s a boat?” Jesus asked. He, his second in command, Conrad, Javier, and Luke had met at the front doors of the church to discuss their next steps.</p><p>“That’s right.” Javier said, hands gesturing as he filled them in on how deep they were in shit. “The helicopter was just their first wave, whoever they are. They came up by boat and are planning to attack any minute.”</p><p>“So what’s stopping them?” Jesus’s second asked.</p><p>“The boat’s in the river,” Luke said, “And Ava’s got men surrounding it on either side, planning to shoot anyone who comes out.”</p><p>“But what we think they’re planning on is the herd getting though our gates, so they just have to wait it out before the city is theirs.” Javier continued. “They tried to bomb the gates before, but they missed. I don’t think it’s going to be long before they tell whoever was flying to get back here.”</p><p>“Well,” Jesus scratched his beard in thought, “This is a fine mess of shit, but we’re lucky. We’ve got a little time.”</p><p>“A boat...that sounds like Chesapeake might be behind this.” The other kingdom soldier said. “They’ve been expanding, took over most of the Rappahannock and started a war with Delta. Heard info from Capital they’re skirting up the Potomac too. If they’re after you guys now, they’re likely trying to take over all the rivers and control eastern Virginia.”</p><p>“Shit.” Conrad’s eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t about this. At Prescott, trading with other communities had made them more connected and informed, but ever since Joan’s actions other communities were slow to trust New Richmond, and they had unfortunately suffered from being out of the loop. However… “That sounds solid, but I <em>know</em> that helicopters weren’t Chesapeake.” He locked eyes with each member of this huddle, particularly Javier. “It was from <em>Prescott.”</em></p><p>“Wait,” Luke put a confused hand up, “Are you serious?” Prescott had been destroyed. After the walls of Richmond were put back together, they went and looked and found no survivors.</p><p>“Prescott was an airfield,” Conrad added, “Eleanor saw it too. That thing was in a hangar. Undamaged, but we didn’t have any use for it.”</p><p>“Well, looks like <i>someone</i> found a use.” Javier’s brows drew together and narrowed in anger.</p><p>“It must’ve taken a helluva lot of fuel to get that thing airborne.” Luke added.</p><p>“Fuel Chesapeake has. If we don’t end this soon, that thing is likely to come back and finish New Richmond off.” The Kingdom soldier said. </p><p>“Between the boat, the helicopter, and the herd, I’m not sure which could take us out first.” Conrad said. “The boat will summon the helicopter, which will rip a new asshole into the walls and flush us out with walkers.”</p><p>All took a moment to let that sink in, let the dread douse them. Then they tried to find a way to swim.</p><p>“We should take the boat out first, but the helicopter might already be back on the way. If we got rid of the herd, we’d have more time.” Luke said, anxiety brewed within him. None felt like the right decision, the correct choice. </p><p>But Javier stayed quiet. Javier was a fighter, but not one like his brother. He could brawl, but he also knew how to think, how to think outside a box. It didn’t always work, but when it did, damnit, it could save their lives. “We kill two birds with one stone.” Javier said, he looked to the other men to explain his plan. “We lead the herd to the boat. Drop those fucking <em>muertos</em> onto their boat.”</p><p>“How would we do that?” Jesus raised an eyebrow, he was intrigued by this plan.</p><p>“Leading them round the city would take too long, and those bastards can’t swim.” Conrad added.</p><p>“We push them off the bridge, right onto them.” Javier continued, “And we lead them right through the city.”</p><p>“What?!” Luke was shocked.</p><p>“Think about it. They won’t tell the helicopter to waste their bombs if they see the city is full of <em>muertos.”</em> Javier continued his plan. “We open the gates, lead them right through the city and on the other side. Then push as many as we can onto the boat.”</p><p>“Those sons of bitches will be trapped.” Conrad said. “It could work.”</p><p>“But leading a herd through Richmond?” Luke said, “It sounds risky.”</p><p>“It’s the best risk we’ve got.” Javier said. “Luke, you should keep everyone together and barricade the Church. Keep everyone safe. Once it’s over we can clear out the stragglers, and no one else will be hurt.”</p><p>Luke took a second to process it, then nodded. “Yeah, yeah...that could work.” He looked at Javier and the Kingdom soldiers. “But who’s going to lead the herd?”</p><p>“Well, we did come to help you folks.” Jesus said, “And out of everyone we’re probably the best prepared to do that.”</p><p>Jesus’s second nodded. “We’ve done something similar before, we know what doesn't work.”</p><p>“And I’ll do it too.” Javier resolved. He would save New Richmond himself, he would keep the promises he made to Luke and David. To Jesus. To Kate.</p><p>“Javi?” Luke looked at him, there was concern and pleading in his eyes. He couldn’t lose another friend. “Are you sure?”</p><p>Javier looked in his eyes, eyes that were begging and worried for <em>him,</em> and felt the same things he had felt a year ago. Luke was asking the same way Javier had asked Kate before she went off on that bulldozer. “Yes. I have to.”</p><p>“Then you’ll need armor. And a horse.” Jesus’s second said. “One of our other men can stay with Luke and protect the people.”</p><p>“Alright.” Javier agreed. “Then let’s get ready to end this.”</p>
<hr/><p>In the empty kitchen of the Church, Javier was given the armor of a Kingdom soldier. He stripped down and adorned the armour. No chainmail, no leather straps. Just velcro and thick plastic, coated foam. In another time, it may have been under an athlete’s jersey, nearly forgotten except thanked in an accident. Now it was the external valour and protection some could claim, which kept their skin free from bites and bodies safe from rot. It’s propose now offensive. Javier was one of them.</p><p>Jesus had told him once that their armour was originally the insides of a lacrosse uniform. In this world, whatever could be useful was put to work. Javier was in the kitchen, trying to fasten the last piece, a shoulder pad, onto himself, the straps were nearly behind him.</p><p>“Need a hand?”</p><p>Javi turned his head, in the doorframe was Luke, arms crossed and favored side against the frame.</p><p>“Yeah, that’d help.” Javier said. Luke came closer to him, from behind he felt Luke’s hands hold and fasten the armour into place. The sound of velcro and knots had never sounded so full of unsaid longing. It never sounded of anything before. Javier swallowed, realizing now that the friendly touches he had been accustomed to from Luke now meant so much more. Was it just him who felt it? Felt his heart beat faster and grow fonder?</p><p>“There.” Luke stepped back. He chewed the inside of his cheek again, as he had since the first bombs had dropped. An anxious habit, he was so tired of being anxious. Of waiting for the next shoe to drop and crush them. “I, uh, I came to thank you.” Luke looked to Javier’s eyes. “Back there, on the bridge. Don’t think I’d be standin’ here if you didn’t react so fast.”</p><p>A pause, a breath, a beat of grateful eye contact.</p><p>“So thank you.”</p><p>Javier nodded, a measured, reflective nod. “I’m glad I did. I…” Javier looked off and away, not able to say this looking into those big brown eyes. “I don’t think I’d know what to do if you died too.”</p><p>A beat, a breath, a pause. Both stood, neither looking away nor at each other. But maybe, for the first time in a long time, they both felt it. They both saw it. This time, Javier wouldn’t wait any longer to say it. He <em>couldn’t.</em> He couldn’t let another person die without them knowing what they meant.</p><p>Luke straightened out, body tilting towards the door, a hand on the back of his neck. “I’ve gotta get ready, you too. Prepare for battle and all… Good luck-”</p><p>“Luke-” Javier reached out, he grabbed a gentle hand over Luke’s arm. “I- Before I do this, I need to tell you something.”</p><p>Luke stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes followed up Javier’s hand and met him in his eyes. They held something in them, there was something that needed to be let out. Something he could recognize. Something that was left unsaid. “What?” Slightly shocked, confused, but wanting desperately to hear it.</p><p>“I-” Javier cut himself off, he closed his eyes and knit his eyebrows together, before taking a step forward. He softened his grip, swallowed, and tried to find the words. </p><p>A beat, a pause, a breath. One they both shared. Luke turned, giving his full attention, unsure what to say himself. He would wait for Javier’s words to come. And after a sigh, they did.</p><p>“After Mariana and Kate died, I was afraid to let anyone else in my heart.” Javier started, his eyes opened again. He needed to be honest, with himself, with Luke. The way he always denied Kate. “I thought it would just lead to heartbreak once they were gone… But I became friends with you, and overtime, before I even knew it, you...you entered it.”</p><p>Luke breathed in, it was a breath he couldn’t help but hold. Was he afraid? Or was it only anticipation? Was it excitement? Was it pain, remembering that he reached out for Nick the same way Javier was doing now? “Javi?” He asked, voice quiet and confused. “What...what’re you sayin’?”</p><p>Javier breathed in, and met Luke’s eyes. Honesty poured through them. “I can't keep living in hesitation. I want to live my life without making any more regrets, without leaving what's important <em>unsaid.”</em> Javier let go, only to hold on again. He reached forward and held onto Luke’s hands, hoping that if this was only it, he could still have him this close. <em>“Please…</em> Tell me if you can feel the same way?"</p><p>A beat, breath, a pause too long. Luke scanned every inch of Javier’s face, trying to understand. Javier took hesitance as a rejection, and felt hot once again. Embarrassment, shame. Is this what Kate felt, once she finally said it? In that armored van a year ago? How he wished he could take it back.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Javier let go. “This- this was a bad idea.” He raised a hand to his brow, pinching the bridge of his nose. He straightened out and took a brusque step away, leaving a confused Luke unheld. </p><p>“Javi?”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s a bad time for saying shit like that. I’ve always had the worst timing-” He walked further to the door.</p><p>“Javi-”</p><p>“Lives at stake, emotions running high. It’s my bad-”</p><p>“Javi!” </p><p>Javier felt a hand on his shoulder, then his body turned around. For a second he saw Luke’s brown eyes coming towards him, then both of their eyes closed. Luke’s hands were on his shoulders, and his lips on his.</p><p>For a shocked second, Javier couldn’t react. Just as Luke couldn’t. Then, it flowed back to him. His hands came up, holding onto Luke as well, and he kissed back.</p><p>It was a long kiss, sensual, it outpoured with emotions that words couldn’t fully convey. Their hearts beat faster, both grew fonder, and both allowed themselves to bloom. Breathing held heavy but not too hot, not hot enough to melt either of them.</p><p>Before either of them knew it, it was over. They pulled their faces away, but held each other still.</p><p>“You were right.” Luke said. “Your timing is dogshit.”</p><p>A surprised chuckle from Javi turned into laughter from the both of them. All that pressure and fear they put on themselves, now dissipated. Excitement was back, fondness was back. Javier hadn’t lost a friend, he gained something he thought he could never have again. Luke as well.</p><p>But now, they couldn’t lose Richmond. They held together for a second longer, before relaxing and their bodies pulled away. The anxious voices of New Richmond leaked in from the walls, the Kingdom soldiers’ and their horses from the window, both groups calling their names. It was time.</p><p>“Javi?” Luke asked as the other man slowly pulled away from him. “Stay safe out there. Come back.”</p><p>“Stay safe in here.” Javier said, taking steps further to the door with Luke still in his vision. “I will come back. I promise.”</p>
<hr/><p>It took time before they started their plan. People and weapons were gathered, anyone that could be was huddled and quiet inside a building. Any road that could be was blocked off, hoping that this would get the walkers funneled directly to the other gate and onto the highway bridge. But soon enough the time had come.</p><p>Atop their horses, Javier and the Kingdom soldiers began their plan. The gates were opened, walkers poured in, but before the undead could wander off on their own, they were lured by sound. The men shouted, whistled, and clapped to get their attention. Eventually, the mob began to follow.</p><p>They were slow, but goddamn when there were enough of them it was terrifying. The horses and the men in armor were slathered up in guts, from behind they shepherded the herd, hoping that their armour, stench, and height would be enough to keep them safe.</p><p>The other gates were opened, and walkers were let out onto the highway. Some escaped, passing through Richmond and straight back through the road, let to wander aimlessly and eat aimless survivors that crossed their paths. But some were attracted to the shouting. And soon enough, with their guns at their hips and football helmets protecting their faces, Javier and the Kingdom soldiers began pushing walkers off the bridge and onto the boat. Arms out, rakes and shovels to keep distance.</p><p>Their rotted bodies exploded on impact, sending the men aboard the boat in a frenzy for cover. The walkers who’s heads hadn’t exploded began to crawl, following the sound of any authoritative shouts to get to the lifeboats. After the screaming, there were splashes of lifeboats landing in the water. After the lifeboats, there was shooting from either bank, Ava commanding her men not to let anyone get to shore.</p><p>The sun was setting beyond all of this. The beautiful hues of orange and pink almost drowned out the ugliness of what unfolded before them, what they were working to create and destroy. This was death, this was survival, this was war. This was what New Richmond was pushed to do to defend their home.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>and that's the start of the war, and of the romantic part of this fic. woooooo. hope y'all enjoyed. if there's anything you feel like would fill in plot holes of this chapter/battle, please let me know and i'll edit it in!</p><p>some cut plot points:<br/>- eleanor was going to confirm the helicopter was from prescott with the men<br/>- luke was originally going to set off fireworks as a flare and javier, jesus, and conrad would have seen them to know something was wrong. i instead changed it to bombs going off on rooves and luke and gabe fixing the radios.<br/>- there was a whole final scene where david, ava, conrad, and some more new richmond soldiers would go to prescott and find someone still there. they'd all be taken aback by this ghost town and think about the carnage that must have happened there, david would feel anger and guilt due to his men's actions. they'd find this person and learn that they were the helicopter piolet and someone conrad used to be friends with in prescott, a person he thought was dead. this person talks about how he did this because new frontier destroyed prescott and he was getting back at them, and then talk about how chesapeake and delta are engaged in a war that will engulf the entirety of virigina, it was going to be a cool/grim/desperate monolouge. and then david would have shot that dude in the face and gone home. i cut this bc i decided ending it on the final climax of the battle and david getting shot would have been better.</p><p>but yeah that's what i've got! the next chapter will be much more slower paced and just focus on javier and luke. it'll be set a few days after the battle and they finally get a change to have <del>sex</del> a conversation about their relationship, families, and past romantic lovers. <del>yes, this includes jane, nick, and kate. prepare for pain.</del></p><p>hope to see y'all there! <del>also hope to see y'all on depop. for real i just need all these things gone.</del></p>
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